Istituto d’istruzione superiore Sandro Pertini is a secondary school. It is a technical and vocational school for Business and Chemistry but it also offers vocational courses for mechanics and agriculture. There are about 900 students and about 100 teachers and other staff in the school.
IIS Sandro Pertini is located in Alatri, a beautiful historical town in central Italy near the Appennini mountains with about 30000 inhabitans. The area is characterized by a high unemployment rate, especially among young people (about 30%, according to http://ottomilacensus.istat.it/sottotema/060/060003/12) even if it has many potentialities for improvement in many sectors like the touristic one.
Our students are aged 14 to 19, many of them come from a cultural and economic deprived background. Because of the recent economic crisis many of our students live in single-salary families. School is often the only subject playing a role in the cultural and social growth of these young people. The pupils often have a very narrow perception of the world beyond national borders, and their understanding of the European dimension and the culture and societies of our European partners and the importance of learning modern foreign languages for job market is limited. A surprisingly large number have not travelled to the nearby big cities nevermind to a European destination. This is due to financial considerations together with a fear of the unknown. Moreover the early school leaving rate is quite high because of disillusionment with the educational system or poor grades.
IIS Pertini is the leader of a network of schools in the North of the province of Frosinone for staff training and technical and vocational training for students. Our mission is based on tradition and innovation. We strongly believe in the social and cultural function of the school as an intermediary between students and the territory. We are active in offering services to the territory: our area is famous for olive oil production and our chemistry students help people who want to know the quality of their olive oil analyzing it; the same happens with water. Moreover our business students offer financial help to people who are in trouble with bills.
