Education in Udine, Italy

As I mentioned in health-system, this area also deserves praise. Unlike in India, the education system here is two-tier (On one part, government schools, on the other hand private schools upto only 8th standard….whereas in India, I find Chaturvarnya in every system including Education system. In India, we have people who don’t send their kids to school, then we have municipal or government schools where you will find poor kids, then middle class students going to good private schools in cities, mostly English medium and lastly, the posh 5-star schools and residential schools for so-called affluent high-class society) but fully managed by state. No private players, no private schools, no private teachers, no tuitions, no coaching classes, no CATs, no entrance exams. Nothing but a plain education system.
All the schools are run by municipal councils, funded by government. The pattern in Italy is 3 years in Pre-primary (maternal), 5 years of primary (Elementary) & 5 years of Secondary (). There are no examinations in elementary section, but only periodic tests. All the schools, all the subjects are taught in only Italian. They learn other languages from 5th standard onwards, but most of them prefer French, German & Latin to English. Only private schools have other mediums of teaching like we have two English-medium schools in Udine. But even in Private schools, the students should achieve good level of Italian which is tested at 5th and 8th standard. And students have very few choices after 8th standard and they switch to government school after 8th standard.
After the secondary education, hardly 50% students go for higher education of which 50% complete 5 years of graduation. Very few opt for professional studies in medicine or engineering, but many opt for other vocational professional studies which gets them jobs by the time they are 16 years. In general, Italians do not like to study as an adolescent teens are lured by easy life early in their life.
The Government & private schools are very well equipped, in vast areas with good airy, bright buildings with play-parks, laboratory, library. You feel really in different world and pleasant to be in the educational campus. Schools have 5-day week and for the full day with snacks and lunch provided in the school. You are not paying any fees in Government but you need to buy books, note-books and all school-stationery. I realized that all these is very costly as they are heavily taxed because education is free.
The emphasis during education is on left-brain development. A lot of activities like crafts, drawings, coloring, team games, puzzles and toys occupying most of the time of the school at elementary level. Self learning is encouraged all the time hence they make a lot of charts every time. Normally, kids do not have home-work but they are supposed to complete uncompleted class-work. The teacher in 1st standard follows the class till 5th standard hence she knows capacity of each students and can work on his/her inabilities, progressively. As such, the task is also very easy for any teacher as she handles only 20 students max in any class.
Normally, school has 5 to 6 study excursions (one day trip to banks or post-office etc) to learn extra-curricular topics related to their syllabus. And one 5 to 15 days picnic to mountains or historic place to explore is arranged once a year (2 or 3 classes together).