← Back to the rankingConvitto Nazionale «Mario Pagano»
Campobasso, Italy · est. 1817 · State
Illustration · Campobasso
Convitto Nazionale Mario Pagano is a state educational institution in Campobasso, opened in 1817 as a college and named since 1865 after the jurist and patriot Mario Pagano; the philosopher Giovanni Gentile taught at its ginnasio. The convitto runs an istituto comprensivo (scuola primaria and scuola secondaria di primo grado) and a liceo scientifico; about 800 students attend in 38 classes. Students of the convitto schools stay as day boarders until the evening, and some live in the boys' or girls' boarding house; the boarding house also takes students of other upper secondary schools in the city. Teaching is in Italian under the state curriculum. The school is a Cambridge International School: primary and middle school have English as a Second Language lessons under Cambridge Primary and Lower Secondary with Checkpoint exams, and the Cambridge International section of the liceo studies English, Mathematics and Biology in years 1-2 with IGCSE exams, and English and Mathematics at AS and A Level from year 3.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $678–1 582 a year
600–1 400 EUR
Programmes
Cambridge · Primary, Lower Secondary, IGCSE, A-Level · National programme
Languages of instruction
Italian, English
Languages taught
French, Spanish, Latin
Class size
on average 21 students per class
About the fees Tuition at this state school is free. The convitto charges an annual fee for day boarding and boarding (meals, accommodation, after-school educational activities), and all students of the convitto schools are day boarders. For 2026-2027: day boarding in primary and middle school costs 1350 EUR a year, in the liceo scientifico 1400 EUR for five days a week, 1100 EUR for four, 900 EUR for three and 600 EUR for two; boarding costs 3250 EUR a year. Fees are paid in three instalments by 30 September, 30 January and 30 April via PagoPA.
Admissions Admission to first year of primary, middle school and liceo scientifico is online under the state procedure with a digital identity and the school code. Attending the convitto is formalised by a paid contract: students of the convitto schools become day boarders (semiconvittori), residents become convittori; the boarding house also takes students of other upper secondary schools in Campobasso, and many residents are young athletes of local football and basketball clubs. Enrolment in boarding or day boarding is valid until the end of the course; withdrawal mid-year is possible only for exceptional reasons with the rector's permission. The school does not write about admitting foreigners.
Stages and year groups Italian state curriculum: scuola primaria (30 hours over six days, with day boarding 8:15-17:00), scuola secondaria di primo grado (30 hours over five days, with day boarding until 18:00; ending with the esame di Stato del primo ciclo) and liceo scientifico (27 hours in years 1-2 and 30 hours in years 3-5, ending with the esame di Stato). Cambridge International: in primary, English as a Second Language under Cambridge Primary, 50 hours a year in year 1 and 75 hours a year afterwards, with optional Cambridge Primary Checkpoint at the end of year 5; in middle school, English as a Second Language under Cambridge Lower Secondary, 75 hours a year, with Cambridge Lower Secondary Checkpoint at the end of year 3; in the Cambridge International section of the liceo scientifico, English as a Second Language 50 hours, Mathematics 50 hours and Biology 25 hours a year in years 1-2 with IGCSE exams at the end of the two years, and from year 3 English as a Second Language and Mathematics, 50 hours a year each, at AS and A Level. For the May-June 2026 session the school entered candidates for IGCSE English as a Second Language, Mathematics and Biology and for AS Level Mathematics and English General Paper.
Address Viale Giuseppe Mazzini 1, 86100 Campobasso
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
Cambridge · Primary, Lower Secondary, IGCSE, A-Level · authorised programmeThe Cambridge register names the school as its centre; it teaches Cambridge Primary, Cambridge Lower Secondary, Cambridge IGCSE, AS and A Level. Primary and middle school follow Cambridge ESL with Checkpoint; the Cambridge International science liceo section takes IGCSE ESL, Mathematics and Biology in years 1-2, then AS and A Level from year 3.
school is in an official registryconfirmed by a school document, by membership or by taking part in a networkclaimed by the school, no confirmation, not counted in the scoreGuide to all organisations → What stands behind each entry
CambridgeCambridge International Education
Part of the University of Cambridge. It allows a school to teach the Cambridge programmes and to enter pupils for the exams. There are four stages and they are authorised separately: primary, lower secondary, IGCSE and A Level. If the stages are known they are named in the line below; if that line is missing, the school does not publish them, and the Cambridge registry does not show stages either - it gives only the name of the centre, the country and whether private candidates are accepted. Cambridge calls what it does registration rather than accreditation, and the network holds about ten thousand schools.
What the badge means for this school. The school is allowed to run this programme and to award its certificate. This is a confirmation of the programme, not a judgement on the school as a whole. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it. At this school: Primary (ages 5-11), Lower Secondary (ages 11-14), IGCSE (ages 14-16), A-Level (ages 16-18). Primary is the primary stage, ages 5 to 11: English, mathematics and science to Cambridge syllabuses. At the end of the stage a school may run the optional Checkpoint test, which is marked in Cambridge. Lower Secondary is the middle stage, ages 11 to 14, with the same optional Checkpoint test at the end. IGCSE means exams at around Year 10 or 11, the British counterpart of a lower secondary leaving certificate. A-Level is the senior years, and their results are what British and many other universities admit on.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →National programme
The state school programme of the country the school stands in: it is set by that country's ministry of education, which also licenses the school and awards the leaving certificate. That certificate is used for entry to local universities, and abroad it is matched to the local one.
What this means for this school. This entry does not count towards the score, and that is deliberate. Every lawful school in a country works to the national programme, so on its own it tells one school apart from no other - unlike the French, German or Russian programmes, which are carried abroad and confirmed by the register of their organisation. We show it because a parent needs to know what programme their child is taught and what certificate the child will get. Counting it would lift the whole ranking at once and still tell nobody apart.
Exams and destinations from the school's official website
The school publishes nothing about where its leavers go: no share going on to university, no exam results, no list of universities.
Facilities from the school's official website
·Swimming poolnot stated on the website
·Sports hallnot stated on the website
·Laboratoriesnot stated on the website
·Theatre or assembly hallnot stated on the website
·Librarynot stated on the website
✓Catering
·School transportnot stated on the website
✓Boarding
Clubs and activities: Chess · Harp Course · Mathematical Rally · Code Week · Psychomotor Workshops · Spanish Language Courses · Journalism · Podcast School · Edu Finance LAB · Erasmus+ (exchanges)
Teaching staff from the school's official website
·Teachers listed by namenot published
·Teacher qualificationsnot stated
·Number of teachersthe school does not say
✓Students per teacher or class sizein the key facts above
After lessons students are supervised by permanent educators (personale educativo) who, in agreement with teachers, help with review and enrichment and monitor the progress of boarders. Cambridge lessons and exams are delivered by the school's teachers.
Safety and wellbeing from the school's official website
·CCTVnot stated on the website
·Security staffnot stated on the website
·Access controlnot stated on the website
✓Nurse or medical room
·Counsellornot stated on the website
·Child protection policynot stated on the website
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
·Anti-bullying policynot stated on the website
The convitto has an infirmary; boarders are supervised by educators throughout their out-of-school time, and the boys' and girls' boarding houses are separate. Withdrawal and payment rules are set out in convitto documents.
Reviews
No reviews yet. The community rating counts towards the score once a school has five verified reviews - until then we do not show a zero, so as not to mislead.
Criteria breakdown criterion weight in brackets
Academics and programmes (16%)95 Community rating (16%)no dataparent reviews are needed: the criterion switches on at the fifth verified one Exams and destinations (12%) scored on disclosed data55 Safety and wellbeing (12%) scored on disclosed data60 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)85 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data65 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data78 "Scored on disclosed data" stands where we count only what the school has written about itself on its own site: exams and destinations, safety and wellbeing, teaching staff, facilities, clubs and activities. A low score here means the school does not write about this, not that the school does not have it: a school with good security and a sparse site will score low. A school can fill in its profile, and the score will be counted again.
The score is counted from 8 of the 9 criteria.Only those with checkable data count: programmes and accreditations from official registers, the fee from a published price list. Where it says "scored on the median", the school has no data and the middle of the list is put in its place, so that a gap gives no advantage. Admissions, teaching staff and reviews come in as their data arrives.
The full methodology → Similar schools in the country