Italy’s proposed school reforms dropping Marx from curriculum spark backlash

Italy’s proposed changes to the national school curriculum, which would remove the teaching of Karl Marx while giving greater prominence to conservative Italian thought, have triggered fierce backlash.

The Italian education ministry’s proposals for the secondary-school philosophy curriculum, studied by more than half of Italian students, omit thinkers such as Marx, Fichte, Schelling and Spinoza.

At the same time, the list of figures set to be included in the curriculum features philosopher Giovanni Gentile, who served as education minister under Benito Mussolini and co-authored “The Doctrine of Fascism” with the dictator in 1932.

The proposals have prompted accusations that the far-right government led by Giorgia Meloni is attempting to reshape Italy’s “cultural hegemony”, or dominant ideological norms.

The concept itself was developed by Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci, one of the thinkers removed from the curriculum.

“I think there is a political motivation behind this,” said Giorgio Cesarale, professor of political philosophy at Venice’s Ca’ Foscari University.

Cesarale is among 60 philosophers who signed an open letter objecting to the proposals, which has gathered more than 14,000 supporters online.

“The Meloni government has, for several years, been trying in various ways to impose what it calls its ‘new cultural hegemony’,” Cesarale said.

“They believe we need to replace the left-wing or Catholic-democratic hegemony with a conservative one, and they are pursuing this by occupying senior positions in cultural institutions and by introducing into philosophy teaching an approach directly opposed to the great rationalist, secular, atheist, materialist and Marxist thought of the modern world.”

The idea of cultural hegemony was developed by Gramsci in his Prison Notebooks, written while he was imprisoned by Mussolini’s fascist regime.

Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli, a former journalist and far-right activist, is the author of the book “Gramsci Lives”, which examines cultural hegemony from a right-wing perspective.

A module introduced into the curriculum guidelines in 2010 that included Gramsci has disappeared from the new version.

“Without Marx, you cannot understand anything, because a large part of philosophy since then has been a dialogue with Marx or about Marx,” said Francesco Toto, an associate professor at Roma Tre University.

“You cannot understand modernity, or the various struggles by workers or colonised peoples for freedom. Removing him means erasing an important part of history, but also erasing the hopes for freedom and equality that have shaped the last two centuries.”

The proposals also newly incorporate the influence of women in philosophy, but critics say the list of proposed thinkers is superficial and focused on religious mystics.

Defending the plans, Loredana Perla, head of the ministry commission responsible for drafting them, said the process formed part of a “democratic consultation” and that “every contribution will be taken into account”.

Italy’s constitution protects freedom of teaching, and teachers will retain the freedom to diverge from the proposals, since the guidelines are intended as advisory rather than “an attempt to impose a mandatory list”.

Critics argue, however, that textbook publishers will still follow the guidelines closely and that teachers may face pressure within schools to comply with them.

“The ministry guidelines are, of course, only guidelines,” said Stefano Visentin, an associate professor at the University of Urbino.

“Nevertheless, it is clear that teachers may not be able to resist them, especially if school administrations reinforce this pressure, and that this will create pressure on teachers.”

Philosophy is a compulsory core subject in Italy’s classical high schools. Slightly more than half of school students attend these institutions, while the remainder enrol in technical or vocational schools.

That system is considered part of Gentile’s legacy. Although an idealist philosopher, he served as minister during the fascist era and introduced the system through a 1923 reform designed to provide the children of the ruling classes with a grounding in classical works and philosophical thought.

“That is why changing the teaching of philosophy is such an important political step,” Cesarale said.

“It touches on a sensitive point. It redirects education as a whole in a different direction and shapes the young men and women who will become the future ruling class.”

The dispute is the latest controversy to erupt over the proposed revision of the national school curriculum.

The proposals place Italian, European and Western history back at the centre of the history curriculum, rather than broader study of world history and other civilisations. The plan describes this as a deliberate choice.

According to the proposals, the decision is based on “the enormous importance this history has had, and continues to have, in world affairs”.

“This history has provided the universally adopted forms of the modern state, the theoretical foundations of scientific inquiry and progress, the basis of human rights and freedoms, and even the very concept of history itself.”

Teachers and former university lecturers have also criticised the new philosophy curriculum for high schools. In the open letter, 60 professors and intellectuals, including Massimo Cacciari, Giuseppe Licata and Gaetano Lettieri, complained that authors such as Marx, Spinoza, Fichte and Schelling had been omitted.

The group described the removal of these thinkers as a “disaster” for students’ cultural and critical education, arguing that philosophy is essential to developing critical thinking and understanding complexity, and should therefore occupy an important and high-quality place in the curriculum.

According to the signatories, the list of authors included in the new curriculum is “far too indebted to the project of an imagined ‘cultural hegemony’ that a retreating government, with the legislative term nearing its end, is trying to leave behind as a poisoned gift for the world of schools, teachers and, above all, new generations”.

In her response, Perla first thanked the signatories for their views and said:

“At present, a democratic consultation process is under way involving all those concerned with formulating the National Guidelines in the best possible way, and every contribution will be taken into consideration.”

She added that extensive meetings had recently been held with all Italian associations concerned with philosophy.

“During these meetings, alongside appreciation for the formulation of the Guidelines, useful proposals for changes were put forward,” she said.

The draft remains open for public consultation online until May 31. The aim is to implement the reform from the 2027/28 academic year onward.