The Ministry of Education, University and Research has delivered to all schools a Circular Letter on the final State Exam  at the end of the upper secondary level of education. The document gives schools some preliminary instructions on the organisation of the exam in 2019/2020.

The regulation in force on the State exam, issued in 2017, establishes the requirements for the admission of students. Among them, the participation in the national testing and in the traineeship activities foreseen for each study course. The application of this disposition had been suspended for the last school year.

The Circular Letter specifies that from 2019/2020, the participation at the standardised tests held in the last year of studies will be a necessary requirement to register for the exam, together with the participation in traineeship activities.

Moreover, the Ministry has re-introduced history in the first written test on the Italian language. For this test, students choose among different tracks. One of them is the analysis of a text and the production of a written paper. According to the Circular Letter, at least one of the topics for this type of test must refer to the field of history.

Finally, students will no longer choose the questions for the interview from three closed envelopes. The examination board will directly give students the questions for discussion during the the oral exam.

Source: Italian Eurydice Unit