Presentation  Presentation  

Summary

Link: Networks e Synergies

Social Development Networks

Chapter 1

Housing quality

Chapter 2

The centre and the suburbs: different systems of mobility

Chapter 3

The family and solidarity

Chapter 4

Quality of education network

Chapter 5

Living the employment network

Economic Networks

Chapter 6

Links within the economic system

Chapter 7

The trade network

Chapter 8

Veneto agriculture network

Chapter 9

Mountain synergies

Chapter 10

Production networks

Chapter 11

The distribution network

Chapter 12

Tourism: synergy between sectors and networks between individuals

Institutional services and
networks

Chapter 13

The network for workplace health prevention

Chapter 14

The Veneto model for the integration of social and healthcare services

Chapter 15

Public Administration: services for citizens and businesses

Chapter 16

Telematic networks in Veneto

Chapter 17

The environmental and territorial checking networks

Chapter 18

Cross-border institutional networks

Chapter 19

Inter-institutional local models




4.2 - Choices when entering education

The first question to come to mind when talking about education is whether the availability of educational opportunities has an influence on people's education choices. The need to carefully plan the structure of the education network, in terms of territory and facilities, is central to the aim of guaranteeing each child has the same educational opportunities and at the same time to managing and coordinating the essential link between school and the job market and between school and society. It is equally as important to be able to guarantee that these opportunities are not influenced by the social status of the child's family in order to permit real social mobility.
A schooling system which provides a wide range of educational opportunities would be the first step, therefore, towards guaranteeing every individual a "made-to-measure" education, one which recognises individual talents and which provides people with the means to navigate the network of working and social relationships with agility for the rest of their lives.

Top  Choices after compulsory education

One of the main objectives of any school system should be to provide the possibility for each individual to choose a learning path which most suits their needs, in order to develop in a self-aware and independent way. Each student's individuality has to be taken into consideration as they must be able to choose an education which fits their nature and abilities.
Demand for education is, therefore, the result of a complex series of contributing factors, within or outside of the school context. These factors come together, either directly or indirectly, to push towards certain educational careers.
One out of three pupils in Veneto in their third year of middle school was leaning towards choosing a lyceum (35.9%) or a technical high school (33%) for the 2008/09 school year, their next year; just under 20% of these pupils were more interested in a professional high school (Note 1). Lastly, 11.5% felt inclined to choose professional one- or three-year training courses as an alternative to upper secondary school.
In line with the choices pupils declared to have made in the third year of middle school, in the 2008/09 school year around one out three pupils in Veneto did choose to attend a lyceum and around the same share chose a technical high school. To go further into detail, compared to choices indicated the previous year, registration for the lyceums differed by less than two percentage points, and technical schools by less than one percentage point. Professional high schools did better than expected as they received 21.3% of registrations compared to the 19.6% who had said they would choose them the previous year. Professional training courses received registrations from 12.3% of pupils, compared to the 11.5% who claimed to want to head down this road the previous year (Table 4.2.1).
In line with the trends of recent years, both Italy and Veneto have seen more pupils heading off to lyceums. The future of our society is tied up with its human capital and with this capital's ability to work the system with agility and speed. In order to keep up with current changes, an ever-higher level of education is a necessity: a school-leaving certificate is no longer sufficient to find a good job.
Of the fourteen-year-olds living in Veneto, 36.8% are signed up for a lyceum, 34.7% a technical high school and 23% a professional high school.
Not including regional professional training courses, the share of pupils signing up for a lyceum in Veneto for the 2008/09 school year stood at 39%, compared to the Italian figure of 43%. This share differs tremendously from province to province: the province of Verona has the highest share at 44.6%, and the province of Rovigo the lowest at 30.8%. In the other five provinces this figure is between 36% and 40%.
Compared to the other Italian regions, Veneto is in third-to-last place in terms of the share of pupils signing up for lyceums; it is followed only by Marche and Emilia Romagna, which comes in at the bottom with 36.6%. Lazio stands out in front on the other hand, as more than half of its first-year secondary school pupils signed up for lyceums. It is worth pointing out that the figure for professional training courses of 7.3 students per 100 14-18 year olds seems lower than for other types of schools because regional professional training courses last a maximum of three years; if we put this figure in relation to its catchment 14-16 year-old population, then it is not actually overly different from the above figures (Figure 4.2.1).
After continual growth in recent years, overall participation in upper secondary schooling is actually slightly down in Veneto: of young people aged 14 to 18 years old, 88.5% registered for a secondary school in the 2008/09 school year, one percentage point less than the previous year and lower than the Italian average of 92.5%.
If we also include students who signed up for a regional professional training course then the share rises to almost 96%, without though taking into account that these courses last for only three years compared to the five years of high school (Table 4.2.2).
Choices made and subsequent registration seem to be fairly balanced in Veneto in terms of number, even though they are undoubtedly influenced by the availability of local schools and access to them.

Top  Access to educational facilities

A starting point for the provision of a balanced, good quality education is without doubt to ensure that every type of educational structure is widely available throughout the region.
Access to educational structures undoubtedly seems to be, as we have already said, central to a region's ability to provide adequate facilities and services to satisfy its citizens' educational needs.
It has been ascertained, as a matter of fact, that close collaboration between education and training systems, the world of work, and society as a whole, can create that innovative network of social production which can guarantee change and provide essential added value even in times of crises.
We can see that for the 2008/09 school year there is, in Veneto, on average, one higher education structure (upper secondary school or regional professional training course) for every 33.9 kmē of surface area. This indicator enables us to compare the distribution of the different types of schools within the region and can therefore be considered a measure of accessibility of educational facilities; it is important also to remember that accessibility depends on a number of factors, including the availability of suitable public transport.
In Veneto, lyceums are slightly more accessible as there is one for every 104.5 kmē. These are followed by technical high schools, with one per 110.1 kmē, while there is one professional high school per 154.5 kmē.
Each individual province differs in terms of availability of the various types of schools, as we can see from the provincial data; if we look only at upper secondary schools, there are great differences between the seven Veneto provinces: Padova and Treviso provide the most access, with one school per 25-26 kmē, Venezia, Verona and Vicenza are also in a good position with figures ranging from 36 to 39 kmē per school. Figures for Rovigo and Belluno aren't as good, with one school per 77.8 kmē and 99.4 kmē respectively. In these two areas, guaranteeing standardised access to education across the province represents a serious issue; this is probably also due to the geographical layout and to the population density to be found here.
Also, as set out in the regional plan measuring schools in Veneto (Note 2), upper secondary schools in Veneto are grouped into areas, maintaining the previous system of school districts: suitable planning regarding the provision of education requires a measuring of school facilities and guaranteeing a wealth of widespread and balanced opportunities, as well as a number of qualified and well-distributed services.
If we look at the distribution of the upper secondary school premises in Veneto, we can see that 13% of municipalities contain at least one; schools in Veneto provinces are concentrated mainly in the capital municipalities, but overall the distribution is fairly homogeneous, except for in Belluno and Rovigo. The areas that have the biggest lack of schools are the upper part of the province of Belluno and the lower part of the province of Rovigo.
More generally, school premises in Veneto tend to be located in central areas, for obvious reasons, leaving the areas bordering neighbouring regions a little under-provided for (Figure 4.2.2).
Where to register and which school to attend, therefore, also depends on where you live and what your area has to offer. There are various aspects competing to determine pupils' choices after finishing middle school: the system of choices regarding education; vocational guidance, which sees input from both society and school on the way in and out of the system; and the availability and accessibility of school premises. The family's social and economic status also plays an important role in deciding a child's educational career.
Ministerial Decree DM no. 141 of 3 June 1999 states that school classes must contain a maximum of 25 pupils and a minimum starting from 10, with a possible 10% variation at the most.
Respecting these regulations in all schools is essential not only to ensuring pupils' safety, but also to maintaining high standards in the offer provided by creating an environment which favours learning.
For the 2008/09 school year there were an average of 85.7 new pupils to every school or regional professional training course in Veneto; in particular, numbers ranged from the 70.5 new pupils signing up for regional professional training courses to the 90.4 signing up for lyceums. These figures seem to show that Veneto schools don't tend to be too overcrowded.
If we compare this to the situation in Italy, Veneto is one of the regions which is best able to provide for the educational needs of its citizens. As a matter of fact, if we look only at high schools, even though Veneto has a high number of first-year pupils per school (88.4), it is able to guarantee a much more widespread availability of schools than its neighbouring regions. If we look even closer, Veneto appears to be the best-off in terms of schools in the north-east of Italy: in Veneto there are 39.8 kmē per school, whereas this figure reaches 60.4 kmē for Friuli Venezia Giulia, 63.2 kmē for Emilia Romagna, right up to 108 kmē for Trentino Alto Adige, which, along with Sardegna and Valle d'Aosta, is one of the regions where people travel the most to reach their place of study (Figure 4.2.3).

Top  Sustainability: household spending

According to Article 3 of the Italian Constitution, each individual must be guaranteed the same educational and training opportunities, regardless of their place of birth or social class.
Guaranteeing equal access to education is a prerogative for a social system which aims to ensure all of its citizens have equal opportunities for education. For a schooling system to be accessible to all it must be able to be afforded by all.
According to Istat data, average monthly spending on education, which includes fees and school books, doesn't seem to weigh too heavily on Veneto families' monthly expenses, nor does it particularly in other regions: in 2008 spending on education as a share of total monthly spending stood at 1% for Italy, and at 0.8% for Veneto; this figure seems to be fairly stable both for Italy and for Veneto compared to the previous year.
According to data from the Giovanni Agnelli Foundation, Veneto is one of the regions where spending on education as a percentage of GDP is lowest; in Veneto the percentage is 2.5% whereas national public spending on education is 3.4%.
Of course, it is worth remembering that in this case all spending is included, not only that paid for by families, and what is more, this indicator is heavily influenced by differences in regional GDP: usually, those regions with a higher GDP tend to bring up the rear (Figure 4.2.4).
Lombardia and Emilia Romagna registered lower figures than Veneto, with 2.2% and 2.3% respectively; at the opposite end of the scales stand Calabria, Campania and Basilicata, whose spending on education as a percentage of GDP equalled 6.8%, 6.2% and 6.1% respectively. For the reason stated above it cannot be said that Veneto invests less in education as it is one of the regions with the highest GDP, a fact which has a strong influence on its position in the regional rankings.

Table 4.2.1
Indicators on educational opportunities by type of school. Veneto - 2008/09 S.Y.
Figure 4.2.1
Percentage of first-years joining lyceums out of total first-years signing up for upper secondary schools by region - 2008/09 S.Y.
Table 4.2.2
Indicators on educational opportunities in upper secondary schools by province. Veneto - 2008/09 S.Y.
Figure 4.2.2
Veneto municipalities containing upper secondary schools - 2008/09 S.Y.
Figure 4.2.3
Access to education: kmē per school - 2008/09 S.Y.
Figure 4.2.4
Percentage of spending on education out of total GDP by region - Year 2007


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Data processed by the Statistics Office of Regione Veneto are collective property; reproduction of this material is authorised for non-commercial purposes only, provided the source "Regione Veneto - Regional Statistics System Management" is acknowledged.
English translation by the University of Padova Language Centre.