As the summer heat lingers and the calendar flips to September, Italy is once again preparing for the annual ritual of back-to-school season. But this year, the anticipation is tinged with uncertainty and logistical headaches, as tens of thousands of teaching positions remain unfilled just days before students are set to return to their classrooms. While the 2025/2026 school year officially kicked off on September 1 with the first teachers' meetings nationwide, the actual start of lessons is staggered across the country—beginning as early as September 5 in some regions and stretching to September 16 in others, according to Tecnica della Scuola.
The regional patchwork is nothing new. In Lombardy, kindergartners are the first to return, with doors opening on September 5. The province of Bolzano follows on September 8, while September 10 sees students in Piedmont, Trento, Aosta Valley, and Veneto dusting off their backpacks. Friuli Venezia Giulia jumps in on September 11, and by September 12, Lombardy’s primary and secondary students join the fray. Most regions—including Abruzzo, Campania, Emilia Romagna, Lazio, Liguria, Marche, Molise, Sardinia, Sicily, Tuscany, and Umbria—have fixed September 15 as their start date. The last to return will be students in Calabria and Puglia, who won’t see their classmates until September 16.
Yet, for many students and their families, the biggest question isn’t when the first bell will ring, but who will be standing at the front of the classroom. According to Orizzonte Scuola, as of September 6, 2025, there are still tens of thousands of precarious teachers—known as supplenti—waiting for their assignments. The process of hiring these essential staffers has been beset by a cascade of complications: resignations, corrections, revocations, and last-minute substitutions, especially for the much-needed support (sostegno) positions.
Daniela Rosano, general secretary of the teachers’ union Anief, explained to Teleborsa that more updates are on the horizon. “In the coming days, there will be new bulletins for the provincial rankings for substitutes (GPS), so for those included in the rankings, it’s still possible to obtain assignments. It’s likely that these new bulletins, which arise from new availabilities—such as part-time requests made after September 1 or resignations from previously assigned staff—will be published even next week.”
The hiring process is a labyrinthine journey through various lists and procedures. After the GPS lists are exhausted—including the special lists for support teachers—attention turns to the local institute rankings (LGI). Only those without any assignment or with incomplete hours are called, ensuring everyone gets a fair shot at full employment. But even then, the saga doesn’t end. The latest ministerial ordinance from 2024 introduced public calls, or interpelli, which are essentially open invitations for applications when all other lists have been depleted. These are published on school and provincial office websites and, in the case of kindergarten and primary school, can even be issued for very short-term positions of up to ten days.
Despite these layers of bureaucracy and frantic last-minute efforts, the reality is stark: “It’s very likely that, with tens of thousands of appointments still to be made, a significant portion will remain unassigned by the start of classes,” Rosano admitted. The impact is not just administrative—it’s deeply personal. For families of students with special needs, for instance, the delay in assigning support teachers can mean days or even weeks without adequate assistance. For teachers, many of whom have spent years bouncing from one temporary contract to another, the uncertainty is exhausting.
The numbers paint a sobering picture. During the 2023/24 school year, there were 232,000 annual substitute teachers—an astonishing figure by any standard. Of these, 30% were aged between 45 and 54, and another 10% were over 54, according to official data from the Ministry of Education and Merit. “One cannot grow old as a precarious worker,” argued Marcello Pacifico, national president of Anief, in a statement cited by Orizzonte Scuola. “The official numbers tell us that in the penultimate school year, we had 232,000 annual substitutes, and it’s increasingly clear that the current recruitment model needs to be replaced as soon as possible, with no ifs or buts.”
Pacifico and other union leaders are calling for a fundamental overhaul of the hiring system. They advocate for a return to the dual recruitment channel, which would allow for extraordinary permanent appointments to all vacant positions. In particular, the 100,000 so-called “derogation” positions—temporary posts set to expire on June 30—should be transferred into the permanent staff, especially given the rising number of teachers who have completed specialized training courses (TFA and Indire). “All those who are eligible from various competitions held since 2020 must also be hired on a permanent basis, progressively but without forgetting anyone,” Pacifico added. The goal, he says, is to ensure stability and dignity for educators, many of whom have spent entire careers in limbo.
Meanwhile, students and teachers alike are bracing for a school year marked by uncertainty. The academic calendar itself is a patchwork of regional variations, with holidays and breaks scattered throughout. Christmas holidays, for example, generally run from December 22-24, 2025, to January 6, 2026, while Easter break falls between April 2 and April 7, 2026. Regional holidays and “bridge” days—such as those for May 1 and June 2—add further complexity, and the last day of school ranges from early to mid-June 2026 depending on the region, as detailed by Tecnica della Scuola.
Despite these hurdles, school communities are doing their best to maintain a sense of normalcy and even celebration. In Piedimonte Matese, for example, the “Scuola di Stelle” event kicked off on September 5, 2025, bringing together students, teachers, and families for a night of stargazing and learning under the open sky. Such initiatives, while not a panacea for systemic problems, offer a reminder of the resilience and creativity that characterize Italian education at its best.
As the first bells ring across Italy in the coming days, classrooms may still be missing some teachers, but the spirit of learning endures. Policymakers, unions, and educators alike face a daunting task: to ensure that the next back-to-school season is less about scrambling for staff and more about welcoming students into fully prepared and supportive environments. Until then, the country watches and waits, hoping that the lessons of this turbulent start will lead to lasting change.
