Grade/education Levels - livelli di istruzione (sistema scolastico) (2025)

Ciao ragazzi!

THIS thread made me think of a burning question regarding educational levels. Can someone (or more than one) help me with this chart?

Age____________Grade_____________School_____________Italian Equivalent
<5_____________Preschool___________________________?
5______________Kindergarden______Elementary_________?
6______________1st grade_________"________"_________?
7______________2nd grade_________"________"_________?
8______________3rd grade_________"________"_________?
9______________4th grade_________"________"_________?
10_____________5th grade_________"________"_________?
11_____________6th grade_________"________"_________?
12_____________7th grade_________"________"_________?
......................................sometimes Junior High School....

13_____________8th grade_________Junior High School___?
14_____________9th grade_________Junior High School___?
.......................................sometimes High School...........Liceo

15_____________10th grade_________High School________Liceo
16_____________11th grade_________High School________Liceo
17_____________12th grade_________High School________Liceo

Thanks in advance.
Tim

Edit: Thanks Amorelli...

TimLA said:

Ciao ragazzi!

THIS thread made me think of a burning question regarding educational levels. Can someone (or more than one) help me with this chart?

Age____________Grade_____________School_____________Italian Equivalent
<5_____________Preschool___________________________Asilo Nido
5______________Kindergarden______Elementary_________ Asilo
6______________1st grade_________"________"_________1° elementare
7______________2nd grade_________"________"_________2° elementare
8______________3rd grade_________"________"_________3° elementare
9______________4th grade_________"________"_________4° elementare
10_____________5th grade_________"________"_________5° elementare
11_____________6th grade_________"________"_________1° media
12_____________7th grade_________"________"_________2° media
......................................sometimes Junior High School....

13_____________8th grade_________Junior High School___3° media
14_____________9th grade_________Junior High School___1° superiore
.......................................sometimes High School...........

15_____________10th grade_________High School________2° superiore
16_____________11th grade_________High School________3° superiore
17_____________12th grade_________High School________4° superiore
18________________________________________________ 5° superiore
Thanks in advance.
Tim

Edit: Thanks Amorelli...

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Ok, a few details. High School is not always "Liceo". We have also "Istituti Tecnici" "Istituti Professionali" and some other sorts of "High Schools". The general term is "Scuole superiori". It seems out "scuola superiore" is one year longer than yours.
That might help a bit, I hope.

To the benefit of our English speaking friends, I would like to add to Saoul's useful post that "1°, 2° etc" is feminine ("prima, seconda...") because the word "classe" is implied.

Raffaella

Saoul said:

Ok, a few details. High School is not always "Liceo". We have also "Istituti Tecnici" "Istituti Professionali" and some other sorts of "High Schools". The general term is "Scuole superiori". It seems out "scuola superiore" is one year longer than yours.
That might help a bit, I hope.

Click to expand...

Any non-Italians who wanted to find their way through the maze of our secondary school system would soon throw up their arms in despair. Our Ministry of Education keeps coming up with new words and classifications.

What all Italians call "scuola media" and "scuola superiore" are "scuola secondaria inferiore" and "scuola secondaria superiore" in "official" language.

The variety of types of licei (classici, scientifici, artistici and - lately - pedagogici), istituti tecnici and istituti professionali is bewildering.
My school has recently been renamed I.S.I.S.S. (Istituto statale di istruzione secondaria superiore). And what we've always called a "preside" (principal) is now a "dirigente scolastico".

miniraffy said:

And how would you call the certificates that you get when you finish each "ciclo di studi"?

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In the American system, you simply complete or graduate from grade/elementary school and junior high. School attendance is compulsory by law through age 16 so it's not as if you really need to prove you finished those levels. Individual schools might hand out a certificate or diploma as a ceremonial gesture. (I don't have kids though, so my knowledge might be a little out of date.)

One receives a diploma on finishing high school (a high school diploma). One earns a degree upon finishing college/university with the appropriate credits (there are numerous threads about B.A., B.S., and other degrees and there equivalence -- or not -- to Italian terms).

Ciao,
Elisabetta

beloli said:

Hi!
May I just add that "asilo nido" is only up to 3 years not to 5?
Then, at three, the child goes to "asilo" or "scuola materna" (two names for the same thing)
And by the way, are the grades different in Britain?
Thanks
B

Click to expand...

The British system is very different from the American one. And we don't say "first/second grade etc" but "first/second year etc."

Primary school is from ages 5 to 11
Secondary school is from 11/12 to 16 (5 years - Compulsory education ends with GCSE exams)
Sixth form college from 16 to 18 (2 years - A Level exams)
University 18 onwards (Bachelors Degree - usually 3 years, after which there's Masters/Ph.D. etc)

This is the state system. The private system is a little different, but I don't know that much about it.
Before primary school, you can send your children to Kindergarten/nursery school.

Murphy said:

Sixth form college from 16 to 18 (2 years - A Level exams)
University 18 onwards (Bachelors Degree - usually 3 years, after which there's Masters/Ph.D. etc)

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Vuol dire che un diploma di liceo linguistico è un Sixth form college exam? Or a A level diploma/exam... I'm a bit confused!

Non esiste il diploma della scuola superiore nel UK, perché gli studenti fanno gli esami a 16 anni (General Certificate of Secondary Education) per finire la scuola dell'obbligo, e poi, se scelgono di continuare, possono studiare per gli A levels (General Certificate of Education, Advanced level) o per varie altre qualifiche vocazionali e tecniche, prima di entrare all'università. Di solito, sono gli A levels che permettono l'accesso all'università, quindi in questo senso possono corrispondere al diploma, ma le due cose non sono identiche.

In alcune scuole, nel settore indipendente, credo che si possa scegliere di fare il baccalauréat francese piuttosto che gli A levels, il che sommiglia di più al diploma italiano.

Se ti serve una traduzione del diploma di liceo per qualche documento ufficiale, forse dovresti usare il termine AE e dire "High school diploma".

TrentinaNE said:

One receives a diploma on finishing high school (a high school diploma). One earns a degree upon finishing college/university with the appropriate credits

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I verbi receive e earn sono intercambiabili fra di loro a prescindere dal titolo di studio ottenuto, o devono essere riferiti a diploma e degree come nel tuo esempio?

By the way, thanks a lot to everybody.

Earn a degree, yes. Earn a diploma, no (not commonly, anyway).

You can also receive a degree, but that is a less common usage than to earn a degree.

Elisabetta

A summary

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educational_stage

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Istruzione_in_Italia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_the_United_States

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_the_United_Kingdom

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Australia

Hi, I need to reopen this thread.

Currently I am puzzled because most of the people translate "Scuola Superiore" with "High School". The problem is that, as written in this thread, in the UK the High School ends at 16 years old, while the Italian "Scuola Superiore" ends at 18 years old, that is the equivalent to a College qualification (A Level or whatever). So when I describe my diploma (Istituto Tecnico Industriale) in English, I find more correct and fairer to say that it is equivalent to an A Level Qualification, especially under the point of view of a British person. Please tell me if I am wrong.

EDIT: Actually "Istituto Tecnico Industriale" should be a BTEC

nIg3D said:

Hi, I need to reopen this thread.

Currently I am puzzled because most of the people translate "Scuola Superiore" with "High School". The problem is that, as written in this thread, in the UK the High School ends at 16 years old, while the Italian "Scuola Superiore" ends at 18 years old, that is the equivalent to a College qualification (A Level or whatever). So when I describe my diploma (Istituto Tecnico Industriale) in English, I find more correct and fairer to say that it is equivalent to an A Level Qualification, especially under the point of view of a British person. Please tell me if I am wrong.

EDIT: Actually "Istituto Tecnico Industriale" should be a BTEC

Click to expand...

Allora se vogliamo essere veramente pignoli, diciamo che non esiste "the point of view a British person", visto che come spiegato chiaramente in questo link che forse non hai letto bene

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_the_United_Kingdom

Inghilterra, Scozia, Galles e Irlanda hanno tutte un sistema diverso

nIg3D said:

Currently I am puzzled because most of the people translate "Scuola Superiore" with "High School". The problem is that, as written in this thread, in the UK the High School ends at 16 years old

Click to expand...

Bewildering to say the least. Unfortunately, wiki seems to indicate that in England and Wales, "Upper School" or "High School" applies up to the age of 18. That is certainly the case in the USA, but Northern Ireland seems to refer to "Sixth Form." Maybe you could help straighten out wiki and us.

Be very careful of what you call "equivalent." There are many threads here that explain that most countries and institutions of higher learning throughout the world disagree with what you are calling an equivalence. I know a lot of people who had to take extra years of courses beyond what they felt were necessary to qualify for graduate school. A Bachelors Degree from country X is not equivalent to one from country Y. Have you seen this thread about laurea triennale, specialistica, etc.?

EDIT: If you instead of going to high school at age 16 and 17 go to a technical school, do not expect anyone to recognize that as equivalent to someone in another country who went to high school until age 18 and then went to two years of technical school. He got 4 years of education while you only got 2. That's the way the admissions board is going to see it.

AlabamaBoy said:

Be very careful of what you call "equivalent." There are many threads here that explain that most countries and institutions of higher learning throughout the world disagree with what you are calling an equivalence.

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That's exactly the point: there's very little equivalence as far as education levels are concerned even in the English speaking world, let alone in the non-English speaking countries!
But you can bet that despite there being dozens of threads about this same topic there will be always someone that tags on their message saying "alright, so what's the equivalent of my degree??"

Paulfromitaly said:

Allora se vogliamo essere veramente pignoli, diciamo che non esiste "the point of view a British person", visto che come spiegato chiaramente in questo link che forse non hai letto bene

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_the_United_Kingdom

Inghilterra, Scozia, Galles e Irlanda hanno tutte un sistema diverso

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mia colpa, intendevo dire il sistema inglese. Vivo in Inghilterra.

Sinceramente non so se questo servizio riguardi anche i diplomi di scuola superiore, comunque per le lauree può essere un utile riferimento per cui lo posto anche qui per coloro a cui dovesse servire: http://www.cimea.it/

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