Education in Italy is compulsory from 6 to 15/16 years of age, and is divided into five stages: kindergarten (scuola dell'infanzia), primary school (scuola primaria), lower secondary school (scuola secondaria di primo grado), upper secondary school (scuola secondaria di secondo grado) and university (università). Italy has both public and private education systems. In Italy a state-born school system, or Education System has existed since 1859, when the Legge Casati (Casati Act) mandated educational responsibilities for the forthcoming Italian state (Italian unification took place in 1861). The Casati Act made primary education compulsory, and had the goal of reducing illiteracy. This law gave control of primary education to the single towns, of secondary education to the provincie (counties), and the universities were managed by the State. Even with the Casati Act and compulsory education, in rural (and southern) areas children often were not sent to school (the rate of children enrolled in primary education would reach 90% only after 70 years) and the illiteracy rate (which was near 80% in 1861) took more than 50 years to halve.

Italy ⁱ/ˈɪtəli/ (Italian: Italia [iˈtaːlja]), officially the Italian Republic or the Republic of Italy (Italian: Repubblica italiana), is a unitary parliamentary republic in south-central Europe. To the north, it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia along the Alps. To the south, it consists of the entirety of the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Sardinia–the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea–and many other smaller islands. The independent states of San Marino and the Vatican City are enclaves within Italy, while Campione d'Italia is an Italian exclave in Switzerland. The territory of Italy covers some 301,338 km² (116,347 sq mi) and is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. With 60.6 million inhabitants, it is the fifth most populous country in Europe, and the 23rd most populous in the world.

Rome, the capital of Italy, was for centuries a political and religious centre of Western civilisation as the capital of the Roman Empire and site of the Holy See. After the decline of the Roman Empire, Italy endured numerous invasions by foreign peoples, from Germanic tribes such as the Lombards and Ostrogoths, to the Byzantines and later, the Normans, among others. Centuries later, Italy became the birthplace of Maritime republics and the Renaissance, an immensely fruitful intellectual movement that would prove to be integral in shaping the subsequent course of European thought.

Francesco Profumo (born May 3, 1953 in Savona) is an Italian engineer and academic who has been Italy's Minister of Education since November 2011. He has been President of the National Research Council (CNR) since August 2011 and had previously served as Chancellor of the Politecnico di Torino from 2005 to 2011.

Profumo was born in Savona on May 3, 1953. In 1978 he started his professional career in research and development at Ansaldo in Genova. In 1985 he moved to Torino as a researcher and associate professor at the local Politecnico. In 2003 he was named Dean of the 1st Engineering Faculty of the Politecnico and in 2005 he became Chancellor of the university. On August 13, 2011 he succeeded Luciano Maiani as President of the National Research Council (CNR), and on November 16, 2011 Prime Minister Mario Monti named him Minister of Education. His areas of professional interest include power electronics conversion, innovative power devices, and power conditioning systems, among others.^{[citation needed]}