Half a Million Italian Pupils Begin Final High-School Exams

Rome: The ‘maturità’ final high-school exams commenced for approximately 526,000 Italian students on Wednesday, starting with the Italian test. The students are required to write an essay, selecting from one of seven provided questions.

According to Ansa News Agency, one of the essay options included a question titled ‘Young people, my hope,’ which references a message by anti-mafia magistrate Paolo Borsellino. Borsellino was assassinated by Cosa Nostra in Palermo in 1992. In response to this, Borsellino’s children released a statement expressing their emotions about the inclusion of their father’s message in the exam. They highlighted their father’s belief in young people and his hope for future generations, emphasizing his vision for positive change in civil society.

Other essay questions offered to the students included a reflection on the word ‘respect,’ an analysis of a poem by Pier Paolo Pasolini, and an excerpt from Tommasi di Lampedusa’s ‘Gattopardo.’ Additionally, students could choose to focus on
the 1930s and the New Deal in relation to a text by British historian Piers Brendon.