According to the Constitution of the Italian Republic, the Italian Republic is made up by the State, the Regions, the Provinces, the Metropolitan areas and the Municipalities. Provinces have been reorganised in 2014. These are all autonomous authorities with powers and functions limited by the Constitution (art. 114).

The State and the Regions have both exclusive and concurrent responsibilities on education, as listed in the Constitution itself (art. 117):

• the State has exclusive legislative power over a specific series of subjects, including the definition of the general rules on education and of the basic provisions concerning civil and social rights to be guaranteed all over the national territory;
• the Regions have exclusive legislative power on all subjects not expressly reserved to the State legislation by the Constitution, among which vocational education and training;
• as for certain subjects, which are expressly listed, the Regions have concurrent legislative power; it means that they have law making power except for establishing fundamental principles reserved to the State legislation; education falls within the concurrent legislation, except for vocational education and training which falls exclusively under the Regions’ responsibility and except for school autonomy.

Local authorities are in charge of some specific aspects of the education system, as the organisation at local level.

The State

Italy is a Parliamentary Republic.

The President of the Republic is the higher office in the State. Every seven years the Parliament and the representatives of the Regions elect the President. The President represents the national unit and carries out a super partes role to guarantee the institutional balances. For this reasons, the President also has legislative functions (for example enacting the laws approved by the Parliament), executive functions (for example, appointing the President of the Council of Ministers) and judicial functions (for example, chairing the Magistrates' governing council).

The Parliament has the legislative power. It is made up of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Republic. Both the Chamber and the Senate are in office for 5 years.

The Chamber of Deputies is elected by full-age citizens through direct universal suffrage. The Chamber is composed of 630 deputies, 12 of which are elected by Italians resident abroad. Persons aged 25 or over are eligible to be elected.

The Senate of the Republic is elected by people aged 25 or over through direct universal suffrage on a regional basis. The Senate is composed of 315 senators, six of which are elected by Italians resident abroad. Persons aged 40 or over are eligible for election. Former Presidents of the Republic are senators by right and the President of the Republic may appoint up to five citizens for special merits as lifetime senators.

The Government has the executive power. The Government has a political function of direction and also carries out administrative activities to achieve the goals set by the State itself. Under certain conditions - by delegation from the Parliament or due to necessity or urgency - it exercises also legislative powers.

Within the Government, the Ministry of education (Ministero dell’istruzione - MI) is responsible for ECEC and school education, while the Ministry of university and research (Ministero dell’università e della ricerca - MUR) is responsible for tertiary education and for research outside university.

The Regions

Italy is subdivided into 20 Regions, which are autonomous bodies with their own statutes, their own powers and functions, according to the principles established by the Constitution (art. 114). Five Regions have a particularly high level of autonomy according to special statutes. Among them, Trentino Alto-Adige is made up of the Autonomous Provinces of Trento and Bolzano that have the same powers of the Regions. The other regions with special statute are: Friuli Venezia-Giulia, Sardegna, Sicilia and Valle D’Aosta.

The Council has the legislative power of the single Region. The members of the Council are elected by voters resident in the territory of a Region. Both the State and the Regions can raise a constitutional legitimacy issue in front of the Constitutional Court in case a regional law or a State law exceeds the relevant spheres of responsibility.

The Board has the executive power. The members of the Board appointed by the President of the Board itself (also called President of the Region). This latter represents the Region and is elected according to the procedures established through regional laws. However, the Constitution establishes the general principle that the election is through direct universal suffrage, if not differently established in Regional regulations.

As for a general description of the powers of the Regions on education, please refer to the specific section.

Local authorities

According to the Constitution, the Italian republic is made up of the State, the Regions, the Metropolitan areas, the Provinces and the Municipalities (art. 114).

As for a general description of the powers of local administrations on education, please refer to the specific section.

The Municipalities

The Municipality is the lower-level local authority, with a direct contact to the population needs. Municipalities have financial autonomy as for revenues, expenditure and their own assets.

The Council deliberates, in the respect of the national and regional laws, on all measures related to the organisation of the services falling under its jurisdiction. Its members are elected by residents with full age through universal suffrage.

The board has the executive power. Its members are directly appointed by the Mayor, who is elected by the residents with full age.

The Provinces

The Province is an administrative authority between the Municipality and the Region that groups together more municipalities that share the same historical, economic and territorial factors. In 2014 ten Provinces became metropolitan areas, while all the other Provinces were re-organised. With the reform, the governing bodies of this level of local authority will no longer be elected by the resident population. The mayor of the metropolitan area, the president of the new province and all collegiate bodies governing the new local authorities are appointed or elected by and among the members of the governing bodies of the Municipalities making up the metropolitan area or the province.