Liceo scientifico

The law Daneo-Credaro

A Royal Commission established in 1906 presented a reform plan^[4] that included, among other things, three five-year high schools:

• the liceo classico ("classical lyceum"), which was based on the then existing liceo – established by the Casati law – and was characterized by the teaching of classical languages (Ancient Greek and Latin, from which is based the Italian language); allowed access to any university faculty;
• the liceo moderno ("modern lyceum"), without Greek, with the strengthening of the foreign language (French), with the teaching of a second foreign language (German or English), of the law and the economy; it did not allow access to the Faculty of Letters;
• the liceo scientifico ("scientific lyceum"), without classical languages, with the teaching of a second foreign language and a strengthening of scientific subjects; it did not allow access to the Faculties of Letters and Jurisprudence.

The proposal was accepted by the minister Luigi Credaro in 1911 (Daneo-Credaro law). See the entry history of education in Italy for further details.

Gentile reform

The liceo scientifico was confirmed, but radically modified, in 1923 with the Gentile reform,^[5] which at the same time suppressed the liceo moderno and the physical-mathematical section of the Regio Istituto Tecnico (Royal Technical Institute). The course was of four years and ended with the Diploma, an extremely demanding state exam with five written tests (Italian, Latin, mathematics, foreign language and drawing) and an oral interview-test (which covered all the subjects studied in the last three years of the course), lasting one hour, in two sessions: one for the literary subjects and one for the scientific subjects.

After the first four years of one of the three lower secondary schools which, at the time, allowed the continuation of the studies (ginnasio, lower technical institute and the istituto magistrale inferiore) and after passing an entrance examination.

The original liceo scientifico was evidently derived from the ginnasio-liceo (gymnasium-lyceum) (the current liceo classico), but compared to this it had the disadvantage of not allowing access to studies of letters and philosophy and above all of jurisprudence whose degree course, in addition to presenting some specific professions (judiciary, advocacy, notary) was attended by most of those who held positions of command. The proposal of the Gentile liceo scientifico was examined by a Commission of the Accademia dei Lincei^[6] which deprecated the unification of disparate subjects and the fact that, despite the name, of "scientific" it had very little, especially when compared to the physical-mathematical section of the Regio Istituto Tecnico, just deleted. And indeed, calculating the total weekly hours over the four years, the main subjects were Latin (16 hours), then Italian, foreign language and mathematics (14 hours).^[7]

Also, should be considered that, at the time, the three lower-secondary-schools that allowed the continuation of the studies (the ginnasio, the istituto tecnico inferiore and the istituto magistrale inferiore), were preparatory to as many secondary schools (liceo, istituto tecnico superiore and istituto magistrale superiore). In this outline, without an "own" lower-secondary-school counterpart, was inserted the liceo scientifico which was accessible both from the ginnasio and, after the admission examination, from the istituto tecnico or the istituto magistrale. This meant that to attend the liceo scientifico it was necessary to "change" school, even physically because the lower-secondary-schools were housed in the same buildings of the respective higher-secondary-schools, with which they constituted a single course of study. And this change was unnatural both for those who attended the gymnasium, which folded on a de fact "inferior"-school because already at the beginning precluded some prestigious professional outlets, both for those who attended the other two institutes, and after four years of study had to give up at a title immediately expendable in the way of work to go to attend a high school, which evidently required quite another application, moreover with a demanding entrance examination.

For all these reasons, the liceo scientifico had a little success so much that, in a city like Rome, the second liceo scientifico (the Liceo scientifico "Augusto Righi") arrived only in 1946.

timetable outline

Bottai reform

The structure of the liceo scientifico changed in 1940, when the Bottai reform^[8] established the single three-years scuola media and the access to the high schools was rationalized; those who wanted to attend the liceo scientifico did not have to change schools, or rather, at the end of lower-secondary-school, everyone had to change schools to attend the chosen secondary school. The liceo scientifico began to establish itself and the number of students grew steadily until reaching the number of students of the liceo classico. Persisted the prohibition on signing in letters and jurisprudence faculties.

Because of the war events, the timetable has been altered several times and the final one will only be in 1952.^[9]

Apart from a few tweaks to the timetable, a consequence of the extension of the liceo to a five-year type, the new course reproduced the previous course. The most important subject for number of hours remained Latin (20), then Italian (19), mathematics (18) and foreign language (17).

In 1962 it was established that the scientific examination was valid for the signing into any faculty excluded letters;^[10] was, in fact, allowed the signation also into the jurisprudence faculty.

From 1969 onwards, when access to university was liberalized, there was a real boom at the liceo scientifico, so much that at the approval of the Gelmini reform (2010), among the students signed in the last year of the course, the liceo scientifico had 103,000 students compared to 51,000 of the liceo classico^[11] Nowadays the liceo scientifico, among the Italian high schools, is the one that welcomes the relative majority of students (22 percent, of which more than a half are females).^[12][13]

The substantial prevalence of Latin with respect to the same scientific-mathematical subjects and the greater number of students enrolled in the liceo scientifico have meant that Italy is still, among Western countries, the one in which Latin is more studied (40 percent of signed in high schools, of which more than half^[14] at the liceo scientifico) thing that has caused quite a few controversies.^[15]

Timetable outline

Sperimentazioni (1970-2010)

Sperimentazioni were alternative experimental curriculum bands offered in Liceo scientifico. ^{[citation needed]} These specialisms were based on the official curriculum, but enriched by increasing the number of hours dedicated to one or more subjects, or including new subjects. They started in the 1970s, when more local autonomy was granted. Schools could offer one or more specialism. When the Gelmini reform (2010) came into force, practically all the high schools were offering these experimental streams.

The most widespread alternative streams were:

• P.N.I. ("National Plan of Computer studies" specialism)^[16][17]
• bilinguismo (Bilinguism specialism)^[18]
• scienze naturali (Natural sciences specialism).^[19]
• con studi musicali riconosciuti (Alternative with recognised musical studies)
• sportiva (Sports specialism)
• umanistica (Humanistic specialism)
• scientifico-tecnologica (Brocca) (Scientific-technological specialism)
• scientifico-biologica (Brocca) (Scientific-biological specialism)
• P.N.I. con bilinguismo (P.N.I. specialism with bilingualism)

Sports curriculum

The first phase of changes to the order structure brought about by the Gelmini reform did not touch on some experimentations and addresses already activated, including the lyceums sports curricula. The revision of these guidelines was launched in 2008,^[22] and ended with the proposal in 2011 of a sports curriculum that can be activated at lyceum institutes.^[23]

The curriculum is an articulation of the liceo scientifico^[24] and issues a scientific baccalaureate curriculum sporting courses.^[23] Presents the study of a new subject: "Sports law and economics", there is an increase in the hours of physical and sports sciences and of the natural sciences, while the Latin language is absent (in some cases it is included for 3 hours a week among biennium and triennium) and the history of art, also, the hours devoted to philosophy have been reduced.^[25]

The first curse with sports curriculum was inaugurated in the school year 2012-2013 at the liceo scientifico of the Convitto Nazionale "Vittorio Emanuele II" of Rome, in collaboration with the "Giulio Onesti" Olympic Preparation Center of the CONI.^[26][27]

The study plan is as follows:^[23]

• ¹ with Computer Technology at the biennium
• ² Biology, Chemistry, Earth sciences

It is included the teaching, in a foreign language (the language must be a co-official language of the European Union different from the main language of the course), of a non-linguistic subject (due to CLIL European project) included in the area of activities and compulsory courses for all students or in the area of the teachings that can be activated by the educational institutions within the limits of the teaching staff annually assigned.