It is late September 2026. Open days at Italian high schools (scuole superiori) begin in November, so six to eight weeks from now, and run until January, with online enrolment closing in February. Anyone who starts gathering information now arrives at the first open day with the right questions, has time to visit more than one and to compare them calmly. Anyone who waits until January chooses under the pressure of the deadline, often on the basis of a single afternoon spent in a crowded corridor. This post comes out two months early for exactly that reason.
The right question is not “which school”, it is “how does he or she learn”
The first mistake, a very common one, is to start from the favourite subject: “he likes history, so liceo classico”, “she is good at maths, so scientifico”. The favourite subject in Year 3 of lower secondary school (terza media) matters less than it seems, because at that age a liking for a subject often depends more on the teacher than on the subject itself.
The question that really matters is a different one: can the child cope with five years of mostly theoretical study, made of books, texts to understand and argue about, written and oral tests on abstract content? Or does he or she need to see a concrete result, to get their hands on something, to alternate theory and practice in order to stay motivated?
This is the real dividing line between liceo (academic high school), technical school and vocational school, much more than the subject liked best today. A child who gets bored quickly with books but lights up in front of a laboratory is not “settling for second best” by going to a technical school: he or she is choosing the environment in which they can actually perform. The opposite holds just as much: a liceo chosen for prestige by a student who needs concreteness produces five years of effort and results below their real potential.
Liceo, technical, vocational, IeFP: the honest table
Before looking at the names of the tracks, it is worth clarifying three things that circulate as truths and are not:
- the liceo is not “for the brightest”: it is for those who want (and can sustain) a path oriented mainly towards university, with more theory and less laboratory work;
- the technical school is not second best: it prepares for both work and university, with a different balance between theory and practice from the liceo;
- the vocational school does not close the door to university: it gives access to the state exam (esame di Stato, the final exam, known as the maturità) like the other two, with a full diploma.
What does close direct access to university, and this must be said clearly, is the three-year IeFP qualification alone, not the five-year state vocational path.
| Path | What it gives at the end | How much study at home | How much laboratory | What is NOT true |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liceo (classical, science, languages, art, human sciences, music and dance) | Diploma, direct access to any university faculty | High, mostly individual study from texts | Low or medium, depends on the track | It is not “for the more intelligent”: it is for those who can sustain a theoretical study method over five years |
| Technical school (istituto tecnico) | Diploma, access to university and the world of work, also usable on the 4+2 route and ITS (higher technical institutes) | Medium | Medium-high, with projects and weekly laboratories | It is not an “easier” liceo: the study load is comparable, distributed differently |
| Vocational school (istituto professionale) | Diploma, access to university like the other two, strong orientation to work | Medium-low | High, with internships and structured school-work training | It does not “close” university: the vocational diploma gives access like any other |
| IeFP (regional path, 3 years, in CFP training centres or in vocational schools under a subsidiarity arrangement) | Vocational qualification after 3 years; with a 4th year, a vocational diploma | Low, strongly practical approach | Very high | The 3-year qualification alone does not give access to university; not even the vocational diploma of the 4th year gives it directly: you need an additional year on the state curriculum with the state exam |
This last point is the most expensive confusion a family can make at this stage: choosing an IeFP path thinking it is “a shorter vocational school” and finding out only afterwards that to reach university you need one more year, and not just any year, but a year of realignment on the state curriculum followed by a real state exam. If the long-term goal includes even the possibility of going to university, this must be clarified before signing the enrolment, not after.
The calendar from now to February
| Period | What happens |
|---|---|
| October | Survey: list of candidate schools, first open days (some schools organise early ones), reading the PTOF (each school’s three-year plan of its educational offer) on each institute’s website |
| November–January | Open days at most schools |
| December | The Year 3 lower-secondary class council writes the orientation advice (consiglio orientativo), made available to the family through the E-Portfolio on the Unica platform |
| December–February | Admission tests for the music and dance liceo, ahead of ordinary enrolment |
| January–February | Online enrolment on Unica (for the year 2026/27 the window was from 13 January to 14 February 2026, then extended to 21 February 2026; the dates for 2027/28 are not yet known, they come out with a ministerial circular, usually in autumn: check on the Ministry’s website when they arrive) |
The point in the calendar that almost nobody looks at in time is the music and dance row: anyone aiming at one of these two licei has a much tighter deadline than everyone else, because the admission test takes place before ordinary enrolment, between December and February. It is the most frequent calendar mistake we see: the family treats the music liceo like any other, arrives in January ready for online enrolment, and discovers that the entrance test was already over in December.
How to really go to an open day
The leaflet and the guided tour show the new computer room, the science laboratory, perhaps an Erasmus project. This is true information, but it is not the information you need to decide. The questions that really make a difference are different, and they should be asked out loud, looking the person answering in the eye:
- On average, how many hours of homework do Year 1 and Year 2 students do each evening?
- How many students withdraw or transfer to another school after the first year, and from which track do these requests mostly come?
- How does the recovery of failing grades during the year work in practice: help desks, afternoon courses, peer tutoring?
- How many hours of laboratory are there actually each week, not on paper but in the real timetable?
- How and how often does the school communicate with families about progress, beyond the electronic register?
- What happens to a student who arrives with gaps in maths: is there an entrance test, a realignment course, or does everyone start from the same point?
- What is the ratio between the number of students and the teachers who handle guidance during the course?
- In the science/technical track classes, how many students then choose STEM faculties at university?
- How are DSA and BES (specific learning disorders and other special educational needs) handled in daily practice, not just in the PTOF?
- Is there a tutor teacher or a reference guidance teacher for each class, and how often do they meet the students?
The answers to these ten questions say more about the school than any brochure. A school that answers questions 2 and 6 with precise numbers and without embarrassment is, usually, a school that really has a support system and not just the intention of having one.
The orientation advice: how much weight to give it
In December the orientation advice arrives from the Year 3 class council, visible to the family on the Unica platform’s E-Portfolio. It is non-binding: nobody obliges you to follow it. But throwing it away without reading it carefully is a different and mirror-image mistake to treating it as a verdict.
The orientation advice comes from people who have observed the child for three years, in a real school setting: they know how he or she behaves under the pressure of a test, whether they cope with independent study or need guiding, and whether their performance rises or falls with the load of theoretical subjects. It is precious information to put on the table together with the child’s own wishes, not something to follow to the letter or to ignore on principle.
The typical mistakes to avoid
- Choosing the school your friends are going to. It is the most frequent reason and the one least connected with the merits of the choice: the group of friends changes anyway in the first months of high school, the wrong track stays for five years.
- Choosing for the institute’s reputation rather than for the specific track. A “prestigious” school can have one strong track and one weak one in the same building.
- The parent who chooses the school he or she would have liked to attend. It happens more often than people admit, and it is almost always a project about the parent disguised as advice to the child.
- The music liceo discovered too late. Enrolling with ordinary January-February enrolment in mind and discovering in January that the admission test was already in December.
- Ignoring existing gaps. A child who reaches the choice with shaky foundations in maths needs to know, before choosing, how that specific school handles those who start behind (see question 6 in the list above). If the foundations are already a problem today, working on them in the months before high school begins (here are some pointers on how to tackle maths) makes any choice much easier.
And if in November of Year 1 you realise you chose wrong?
This is the part that really takes the panic out of the decision, and it should be said clearly from now: the January choice is not irreversible.
By 31 January of the first or second year, a change of track can be made without supplementary exams: it is the school receiving the student that organises the realignment on the different subjects. From the third year onwards, however, a change requires supplementary exams on only the subjects not attended in the new track: a bigger commitment, but still a possible path, not a dead end.
Knowing this beforehand helps you approach the January-February choice with the right seriousness, without the weight of having to get it right first time. The first two years are also designed to check that the chosen track is the right one, and the possibility of correcting it by 31 January exists precisely for this.
Where to start
If a boy or girl reaches this stage with uncertain foundations in maths, whichever track they choose, closing that gap before high school begins stops the first year starting uphill. If you would like a hand working out where to begin, the introductory call is free and lasts half an hour.
To get an idea of the level of maths and physics the liceo asks for, you can try one of the high school practice tests: they are Year 1 level questions, with a score per topic.
Related posts: how many failing grades it really takes to be held back, how to get ready for the first Year 1 maths test, PDP and PEI: the difference and how to request them at school.
