Italy has reinstated a measure to fail badly behaved pupils as concerns grow over aggression directed at teachers.
The “grades for conduct” policy, similar to a measure first introduced by Benito Mussolini’s fascist government in 1924, is part of an education bill that was approved in parliament on Wednesday, and gives schools the power to fail students based purely on their behaviour.
Middle school and high school pupils who score five or less out of 10 on conduct will fail the year and face having to repeat it even if their academic standard is up to par. High school students who only score six on conduct will have to do a civic education test. Marks in behaviour will also greatly influence the sitting of the crucial maturità school-leaving exam.
Giuseppe Valditara, the education minister in Giorgia Meloni’s far-right government, said: “The grades-for-conduct reform restores the importance of individual responsibility, makes respect of people and public goods central and restores the authoritativeness of teachers.” Meloni has previously said the change would “bring back respect” in schools.
Fines of between €500 (£415) and €10,000 have been introduced for acts of aggression or violence towards school staff.
The law, embraced by ANP, Italy’s association of headteachers, follows a more than 110% rise in aggressive incidents towards teaching staff since the beginning of the year compared with 2023. In many cases teachers have needed medical treatment, while in others the perpetrators were the pupils’ parents. Students often clash with their teachers over the use of mobile phones in class.
Antonello Giannelli, the ANP president, said the measure was “a step forward”. “We have heard of too many cases of undisciplined and out-of-the-ordinary behaviour,” he said. “It is right that students are called to reflect on their responsibilities as a consequence of their actions.”
Tommaso Martelli, the coordinator of a national student union, said the move was aimed at “reinforcing an authoritarian and punitive culture”. “The possibility of being failed for violations of the rules now makes the grades for conduct measure something that can be used as a further repressive tool in our schools,” he said.
The original Mussolini-era measure remained in place until the mid-1970s, before it was scrapped in elementary and middle schools after student protests. It underwent modifications over the years before being removed in all schools in 2000.
The package of measures, already approved in the senate, passed in the lower house with 154 votes in favour, 97 against and seven abstentions.
Anna Ascani, a politician with the centre-left Democratic party, said the conduct rule marked “a return to a time that we would prefer to forget”.
