The Invalsi tests are given each year to measure schoolchildren’s literary, numeracy and command of English and do not count towards the pupils’ end-of-year assessments.
This year they were given to one million elementary pupils, in Years 2 and 5, 570,000 middle-school students, in Year 8, and more than a million high-school students.
The nationwide figures were an improvement on those for the south.
The results showed that the drop in performance registered between 2019 and 2021 during the COVID pandemic had stopped, although the trend has not yet been reversed.
In Italian, 62 per cent of middle-school pupils achieved an adequate result, up one percentage point on 2022, but stable on 2021, while 56 per cent performed sufficiently in maths, the same as in 2021 and 2022.
The report said 80 per cent were able to understand a text in English, up two points on 2022, and 62 per cent were up to scratch in the listening test, up three points.
ANSA
