Challenges and Pathways to Becoming a Teacher in Italy

Path to Becoming a Teacher

It’s not very simple to become a teacher in Italy. First of all you have to graduate, if you want to teach in a Primary School you need to graduate in Science Education that allows to become also a support teacher, instead if you want to teach in a Middle School or in a High School you have to graduate in the subject that you want to teach. For example, I would like to teach Italian Literature and History, so I graduated in Modern Philology.

Complications of the School System

In the recent years the Italian school system became more complicated, in fact some years ago people who finished university used to start teaching immediately, according to a national ranking compiled by the Ministry of Education, instead now you have to attend an internship but it has a limited number, so you have to pass an entrance exam. This internship lasts one year, during which you start training in a school with a tutor and, at the end, you have to discuss a graduation thesis. However , it’s not over, in fact once you are graduated and you have had experience thanks to internship, you need to obtain some certificates attesting your knowledge about English language and computer use. In this way, you’ve spent about twenty-one years studying to reach your goal, but unfortunately there is a last difficulty: you have to pass an open competitive exam. Finally, if you pass this exam, you’ll become a teacher.

Alternative Opportunities and Challenges

This is just the main road to start working in an Italian school, in fact you might send your curriculum to private schools so you don’t need to do the internship, but in this case if they employ you, you would be just a substitute teacher , that is you could work for a year, a month or even for just one week. Another opportunity is given every three years, when every school allows aspiring teachers to subscribe to a special ranking, but not everyone is on the same footing, naturally rank-job people have priority over a new graduated. Moreover, like in the previous case, this is a temporary work. It’s a very hard procedure, but maybe there is a workaround.

Necessary Reforms in the School System

I’m not sure but some rumours say that if you went to Spain or in another European Country, you could take an exam that has the same value of the Italian internship. I’ve tried to find out more, but it seems that the Italian government doesn’t recognize this kind of teacher training. Doubtless Italian school system is dated , if you go in an Italian school, you’ll see a lot of old teachers, because we need to reform this system to help younger people to access teaching without these complications. I think that a young teacher is more motivated than a teacher close to retirement. Moreover today there is a lively debate to introduce in the classrooms technological support as tablets or e-books, but at same time a lot of students don’t have desks or blackboards to study because we don’t have assets, if I were the Minister of Education, I’d try to solve this question first . Sometimes older people tell to me that when they were young, they used to emigrate to other Countries because of unemployment situation, it might be a good idea, but I would emigrate for my choice, I think no one should do it due to situation.