THEDegree as a “family issue”true mirage for those with parents without a diploma. Graduates who do not find work and if they find it are badly paid. AND The Italians who, in general, are framed as adults with “a low level of literacy”, who struggle to understand just slightly more complex texts. It is the dramatic photograph of our country taken by Education at a Glance 2025, The annual OECD report on the state of education in the “STEM” world.
Education at a Glance 2025, the annual OECD report on the state of education
Among the many data contained in the 584 pages of the OECD report, there are many dramatic data. First of all Graduates in Italy, who are only 22% of the 25-64 year olds against the OECD average of 42%. Our country is even in the last place together with Mexico among the 38 industrialized countries (Canada at the first with 65%).
Italian graduates: few, humanists, without work, paid badly
Only 32% of our young people between 25 and 34 years old manage to cross the graduation goal with a clear prevalence of women (38%) compared to men (25%). But against an OECD average that touches 50 percent. And, even at the crossed finish, those that make it they earn only one third more of those who only have a diploma: in other countries once and a half more.
It certainly affects the fact that more than one in three student with us graduated in the humanistic or social fields (36 percent against 22 percent of the OECD average). In other countries the two most popular graduation areas are the so -called stems (sciences, mathematics, engineering or computer science) and economics or jurisprudence (23 percent each).
Graduation as a family matter
The most disadvantaged young people are those who come from families with a low education rate (maximum the eighth grade), and the disadvantage is soon: only 15 percent manage to do it. But Not even the children of the graduates have a degree in their pockets: one in three stops before.
The skills in understanding the text according to the OECD report
The report also deepens the results of the study on adult skills. It appears that 37% of the 25-64 years old have skills of understanding and writing of texts (literacy) on an elementary or lower level (level 1 on a scale from zero to 5, in fact the so -called “functional illiteracy”), against the OECD average of 27%.
What is even more shocking, in this category is part of 16 percent of graduates: one in six graduates (the OECD average is equal to 10 percent).
More than one in three Italians is therefore able to understand Only short texts that use a simple vocabulary. They are the ones that the OECD defines them adults with “a low level of literacy”. Functional illiterates. It is an absolute disadvantaged condition well beyond employment opportunities. Compromises the ability to manage savings, to find correct information on the net and consequently affects trust in others and institutions.
The salary (low) of the teachers
Another dramatic figure concerns theor salary of teachers compared to other graduates. Here a teacher earns 33 percent less than another graduate (against an OECD average of 17 percent less). Not only that: in the last ten years its effective salary has decreased by 4.4 percent, while in other countries it has increased on average by 14.6 percent.
In Italy, investments in education, from primary school to university amount to 3.9% of GDP (the OECD average is 4.7%) : it is the university that makes the expense of the gap. Even if the average expenditure per student climbed from 11,731 to 12. 493 dollars between 2015 and 2022, the share intended for education in the peninsula decreased from 7.1% to 6.7% of public budgets in this period against the decline from 10.9% to 10.1% average OECD.
Empty cradles and classes … as well
In the OECD area, the average size of the classes in primary school remained unchanged since 2013 with 20.6 students. In Italy in 2023 the classes were composed on average by 17.9 students, down 1.4 units. Obvious consequence of empty cradles. Between 2013 and 2023 Italy recorded a 25% drop in the number of children aged between 0 and 4 years and an additional drop of 3% is estimated between 2023 and 2033.