{"id":346459,"date":"2026-09-14T08:25:35","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T06:25:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/italien.news\/uncategorized\/italien-5000-schulklassen-weniger\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T08:52:00","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T06:52:00","slug":"italy-5000-fewer-school-classes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/italien.news\/en\/panorama\/italien-5000-schulklassen-weniger\/","title":{"rendered":"Italy is losing about 5,000 school classes"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wpb-content-wrapper\" id=\"wpb-content-root\"><div class=\"row vc_row wpb_row vc_row-fluid\"><div class=\"jeg-vc-wrapper\"><div class=\"wpb_column jeg_column vc_column_container vc_col-sm-12\"><div class=\"jeg_wrapper wpb_wrapper\">\n\t<div class=\"wpb_text_column wpb_content_element\" >\n\t\t<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n\t\t\t<p>Rome \u2013 Italy is starting the 2026\u201327 school year with about 5,000 fewer classes. Approximately eight million students are returning to school these days. The decline in the number of classes follows years of falling birth rates and is changing how schools plan for locations, staffing, and commutes.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"row vc_row wpb_row vc_row-fluid\"><div class=\"jeg-vc-wrapper\"><div class=\"wpb_column jeg_column vc_column_container vc_col-sm-12\"><div class=\"jeg_wrapper wpb_wrapper\">\n\t<div class=\"wpb_text_column wpb_content_element\" >\n\t\t<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n\t\t\t<p>This figure should not be confused with other metrics of the education system. A class is a learning group; a school may comprise multiple classes and locations. In addition, the number of independent public schools will drop from 7,476 to 7,391 in the new school year. These 85 lost autonomous schools do not automatically mean 85 closed buildings. Often, several schools are consolidated under a single administration, while individual campuses remain open.<\/p>\n<p>The demographic pressure extends far beyond a single school cohort. In 2025, approximately 355,000 children were born in Italy, 3.9 percent fewer than in 2024. The average number of children per woman fell to 1.14. Although these newborns will not reach school age for several years, this new low indicates that smaller cohorts will continue to enter the school system in the future. A growing number of students with foreign citizenship is slowing the decline, but does not offset it nationwide.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"row vc_row wpb_row vc_row-fluid\"><div class=\"jeg-vc-wrapper\"><div class=\"wpb_column jeg_column vc_column_container vc_col-sm-12\"><div class=\"jeg_wrapper wpb_wrapper\">\n\t<div class=\"wpb_text_column wpb_content_element\" >\n\t\t<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n\t\t\t<h2 class=\"inw-h\">Fewer School Classes Are Changing Italy's School System<\/h2>\n<p>The impact varies by region. In terms of state-run school districts, Campania will have 23 fewer districts in the new school year, Emilia-Romagna 17, Tuscany 16, and Piedmont 15. Together, these four regions account for 71 of the 85 districts being eliminated. This illustrates how heavily the reorganization is concentrated in certain parts of the country.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"row vc_row wpb_row vc_row-fluid\"><div class=\"jeg-vc-wrapper\"><div class=\"wpb_column jeg_column vc_column_container vc_col-sm-12\"><div class=\"jeg_wrapper wpb_wrapper\">\n\t<div class=\"wpb_text_column wpb_content_element\" >\n\t\t<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n\t\t\t<p>This increases the organizational burden on schools. School administrators may have to oversee more buildings, municipalities, staff, and students. In rural areas, this trend also affects accessibility: if small classes are merged or school locations are consolidated, commutes to school may become longer. The decline in enrollment does not translate directly to a one-to-one reduction in staff, as the range of subjects offered, special education needs, full-day programs, and small campuses continue to require teachers and administrative personnel.<\/p>\n<p>The government's reform of the school system links the decline in student enrollment to the goal of reducing average class sizes. Whether this will actually result in smaller learning groups or, more likely, further school mergers, however, depends on regional plans and available positions.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With about 5,000 fewer school classes at the start of the school year, it\u2019s clear how Italy\u2019s declining birth rate is changing the school system and staffing plans.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":346452,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inwp_podcast_mp3":"","inwp_podcast_apple":"","inwp_podcast_spotify":"","inwp_podcast_youtube":"","inw_restaurant_url":"","inw_restaurant_lat":"","inw_restaurant_lng":"","in_event_type":"","in_event_featured":"","in_event_teaser":"","in_event_name":"","in_event_address":"","in_event_status":"","in_event_turnus":"","inw_hotel_email":"","inw_hotel_type":"","inw_hotel_name":"","inw_hotel_street":"","inw_hotel_zip":"","inw_hotel_city":"","inw_hotel_region":"","inw_hotel_country":"","inw_hotel_phone":"","inw_hotel_url":"","inw_hotel_lat":"","inw_hotel_lng":"","inw_hotel_pricerange":"","inw_hotel_stars":"","inw_hotel_amenities":"","in_event_start":"","in_event_end":"","in_event_time":"","in_event_time_end":"","in_event_location":"","in_event_city":"","in_event_region":"","in_event_price":"","in_event_organizer":"","in_event_url":"","in_event_sort":"","in_event_sort_end":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","subtitle":"Rund acht Millionen Sch\u00fcler starten ins neue Schuljahr, doch die Zahl der Klassen sinkt. Der Geburtenr\u00fcckgang zwingt Regionen, Schulnetz und Personal neu zu ordnen."},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[467],"tags":[1318,9304,8397,4170,4587,22612,22613],"class_list":["post-346459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-panorama","tag-bildung","tag-demografie","tag-istat","tag-schule","tag-schueler","tag-schulklassen","tag-schulnetz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/italien.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/italien.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/italien.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/italien.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/italien.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/italien.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/italien.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/italien.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/italien.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/italien.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}