Italy is a parliamentary republic. The President of the Republic is the higher office in the State, elected every seven years by the Parliament and the representatives of the Regions. The Parliament has the legislative power and it is made up of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Republic. The Government has the executive power and is made up of the President of the Council of Ministers and the Council of Ministers, which groups all the single Ministers.

The State shares some responsibilities with the 20 Regions. Education is among them; however, some aspects of education fall under the exclusive legislative powers of the State (e.g. the definition of the general rules) and of the Regions (e.g. the offer of vocational education and training outside school). The organisation of education is decentralised at local level.

According to the Constitution of the Italian Republic, education is accessible to everyone and compulsory education is free (art. 34). At present, compulsory education lasts 10 years (from 6 to 16 years of age). Education, at all levels, is accessible throughout the national territory. Italian is the official language of education; however, specific regulations allow the use at school of other 12 minority languages, spoken in some territories.

The Italian territory, with the exclusion of Republic of San Marino and Vatican City State, covers an area of 302 068 square km. At 1st January 2020, residents in Italy were 60 244 639 (29 340 565 males and 30 904 074 females).