Changes in the Italian Job Market for Foreign Language Teachers: What to Expect in 2025
New Regulations for Italian Teachers for Foreign Students
The decree-law n.71 of May 31, 2024, which focuses on “Urgent provisions concerning sports, educational support for students with disabilities, the regular start of the 2024/2025 school year, and university and research matters,” has been approved by the Chamber of Deputies and is now under discussion in the Senate before being published in the Official Gazette.
But what changes can be expected from 2025 with the School and Sports Decree for foreign students? According to the provisions of the School decree starting from 2025, it will be possible to assign an Italian teacher to classes with foreign students under certain conditions.
Furthermore, many new features of the School and Sports Decree concern support teachers and specialization paths.
Let’s explore what the School Decree entails regarding the new Italian teacher for foreigners, the requirements, and the conditions for its implementation.
Italian Teacher for Foreign Students with the School Decree: Changes from 2025
Article 11 “Measures for the school integration of foreign students” of the law conversion text of the School decree states that, with a decree from the Minister of Education, within the limits of available national staff resources, “the assignment of a teacher dedicated to teaching Italian to foreigners for classes with a number of foreign students, enrolling in the national education system for the first time or who do not possess basic language skills in Italian at least equivalent to level A2 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), equal to or higher than 20 percent of the students in the class,” may be arranged.
The conditions for assigning an Italian teacher to the class require that at least 20 percent of the students have a level of Italian language below A2.
Moreover, the decree establishes, in the same article paragraph 2, that schools can assess the Italian skills of foreign students and develop Personalized Teaching Plans (PDP) in collaboration with the Provincial Centers for Adult Education (CPIA), with which they can enter into agreements.
Italian teachers for foreigners will be placed in classes starting from the 2025/2026 school year.
From that same year, according to the School and Sports Decree, schools will “promote educational enhancement activities extracurricularly using resources from the National Program ‘PN School and competences 2021-2027,’ in implementation of Regulation (EU) 2021/1060 of the European Parliament and of the Council, of June 24, 2021, respecting the procedures, territorial constraints, programmatic and financial constraints provided for in the 2021-2027 programming and the eligibility criteria of the aforementioned Program.”
With a specific decree, the Ministry of Education will identify the attendance rates of foreign students without an adequate level of Italian proficiency for a school to participate in the program and the modalities for their involvement.
Italian Teacher for Foreign Students from 2025: Requirements
Starting from 2025, Italian teachers assigned to classes with foreign students must meet the requirements to teach under the “A-23 Italian Language for Foreign Language Learners (non-native speakers)” certification.
Therefore, a teacher in secondary school, for example, must have specific credits to qualify for the A-23 certification.
The School decree states:
“In planning the positions to be assigned through the ordinary competition procedures for secondary school teachers, the Ministry of Education considers the need for the ‘Italian Language for Foreign Language Learners’ certification (A-23 certification) resulting from the application of this paragraph.”
Therefore, upcoming school competitions will likely have a substantial number of positions dedicated to teachers who meet the requirements to teach under the A-23 certification.
