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Reforms, stricter rules, and targeted investments drive early school leaving down to 8.2%—but challenges remain
Italy has achieved a milestone that few would have predicted just a few years ago: it has met—and surpassed—the European Union’s target on early school leaving five years ahead of schedule. According to the latest national statistics, the rate of students leaving education and training prematurely dropped to 8.2% in 2025, well below the EU’s 9% goal set for 2030.
For a country long associated with structural weaknesses in its education system, the result marks a remarkable turnaround. Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara described it as an “exceptional achievement,” pointing to a combination of policy reforms, targeted investments, and stricter enforcement of compulsory schooling laws as the driving forces behind the progress.
A rapid and consistent decline
The improvement is even more striking when viewed against recent history. In 2020, Italy missed the previous EU target of 10% by a wide margin, recording a dropout rate of 14.2%. At the time, the figure highlighted deep-rooted challenges in keeping students engaged through the end of their education.
Yet the trend has shifted dramatically since then. After standing at 11.5% in 2022, the rate fell to 10.5% in 2023, then to 9.8% in 2024, before reaching the current 8.2%. The steady decline suggests that recent interventions are not only effective but also structurally reshaping the system.
Even more noteworthy is Italy’s performance compared to other European countries traditionally considered leaders in education. While Italy has improved, several of its peers have experienced setbacks. Germany, for instance, recorded a rate of 12.9% in 2024, while Estonia stood at 11%, Denmark at 10.4%, and Finland at 9.6%. The contrast underscores Italy’s unexpected leadership in this area.
Policies behind the turnaround
The government attributes much of the progress to a series of reforms introduced in recent years. Among them are the “Agenda Sud” and “Agenda Nord” programs, which aim to modernize teaching methods and channel resources into the most disadvantaged regions of the country.
Equally significant is the so-called “Caivano Decree,” which tightened regulations around school attendance and introduced stricter consequences for violating compulsory education requirements. The combination of incentives and enforcement appears to have produced tangible results, particularly in areas historically plagued by high dropout rates.
The impact is especially visible in southern Italy. In the 2024–2025 school year alone, around 8,000 students in the Campania region who had previously dropped out were brought back into classrooms. More broadly, the South has shown impressive improvement: excluding the islands, the region now records an average dropout rate of 8.4%. Campania has reduced its rate from 19% in 2020 to 9.7%, while Calabria has achieved an even more dramatic drop—from 16.9% to 6.5%.
These figures suggest that targeted interventions can yield rapid gains when resources and policies are aligned effectively.
The persistent challenge of integration
Despite the overall success, not all indicators point in a positive direction. One of the most pressing challenges remains the high dropout rate among students with foreign citizenship, which stood at 26.2% in 2025.
Although this marks an improvement from 30.1% in 2022, the gap compared to Italian students—whose rate is just 6.7%—remains significant. The disparity highlights ongoing difficulties in integrating immigrant students into the education system, particularly when language barriers and socio-economic factors come into play.
The Ministry of Education has acknowledged the issue and has begun implementing targeted measures. These include an investment of over €13 million aimed at strengthening Italian language instruction, as well as the deployment of 1,000 specialized teachers dedicated to supporting newly arrived students.
While these initiatives are a step in the right direction, closing the gap will likely require sustained effort and long-term structural solutions.
Structural gaps still to be addressed
Other critical issues persist beneath the headline figures. Data from national education assessments have already pointed to significant regional disparities, with differences between northern and southern Italy still evident despite recent progress.
Gender disparities also remain, with male students more likely to leave education early than their female counterparts. In addition, there is growing concern about so-called “implicit dropouts”—students who remain in school but fail to achieve basic competencies.
In fact, nearly one in ten students reaching their final year of high school last year did not meet minimum standards in Italian, mathematics, and English. When combined with those who leave school early, this broader measure of educational disengagement still represents a substantial share of the student population.
A success to consolidate
Italy’s achievement in reducing early school leaving is undoubtedly significant, marking a rare case in which the country not only meets European benchmarks but exceeds them ahead of schedule.
However, the challenge now lies in maintaining—and potentially improving—these results. Sustained investment, continued policy innovation, and a stronger focus on inclusion will be essential to ensure that the progress made so far becomes a permanent feature of the Italian education system rather than a temporary success.
In the end, the empty desks that once symbolized a systemic problem are becoming less common. The task ahead is to ensure they disappear for good.
Alessandro Fiorentino