The current pupil-teacher ratio (8.9) increases only slightly if the calculations exclude backup teachers, a feature of the Italian school system; in the other OECD countries the ratio is on average 16.7 for primary schools and 13.4 for secondary schools.
While higher productivity increases here have partly offset these differences, these have been confined to a relatively small number of industrial sectors. The strengthening of the euro since the middle of last year has exacerbated the effect of these unfavourable trends on competitiveness.