← Back to the rankingIstituto Tecnico Economico per il Turismo Marco Polo
Palermo, Italy · est. 1962 · State
Illustration · Palermo
ITET Marco Polo is a state technical institute for tourism in Palermo, opened on 1 October 1962 at the same time as similar institutes in Milan, Rome and Venice. The school moved through several historic palaces - Palazzo Jung, Palazzo Butera - and since 1982 has had its own building on Via Ugo La Malfa near the San Lorenzo metro station. It has one track, Turismo, with several lines: EsaBac Techno (since 2012, Italian diploma and French baccalauréat), Cambridge International and an evening course; the school belongs to the Goethe-Institut PASCH network for learners of German. Since 2022 Marco Polo has been a Cambridge International School: in the Cambridge classes English as a Second Language, Global Perspectives and Travel and Tourism are taught in English to IGCSE syllabuses with native-speaker teachers. Teaching is in Italian, with these three subjects in English in the Cambridge classes.
Key facts
Programmes
Cambridge · IGCSE · National programme
Languages of instruction
Italian, English
Languages taught
French, German
About the fees The school is a state school and charges no tuition. The Cambridge line is fee-paying: 200 EUR per year in the first four years (for the native-speaker teacher, Cambridge registration, running costs and teacher training) and about 110 EUR for each IGCSE exam; Cambridge may revise the amounts.
Admissions Enrolment in grade 1 follows the national Iscrizioni online procedure, usually in winter after the November circular. There is no selection for the Cambridge class, but English of at least A2 level is required; if applications exceed places, students with a language certificate from A2 upwards have priority. Students can join EsaBac after grade 2, also from another section. A small share of students do not have Italian citizenship and usually speak Italian fluently.
Stages and year groups Grades 1-5 istituto tecnico. Istituto tecnico economico, Turismo track, five years with the esame di Stato; an evening course for adults. EsaBac Techno line in grades 3-5: French language, culture and communication 4 hours a week, literature and history in French, Italian diploma and French baccalauréat. Cambridge International line: Cambridge IGCSE English as a Second Language (exam in May-June of grade 3), Travel and Tourism (exam in grade 4) and Global Perspectives (exam in October-November of grade 5), taught in English, with native speakers teaching extra hours and co-teaching with regular staff. IGCSE exams do not affect school grades or promotion. German is taught within the PASCH network.
Address Via Ugo La Malfa 113, 90146 Palermo
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
Cambridge · IGCSE · authorised programmeThe Cambridge register names the school as its centre; it teaches Cambridge IGCSE. Cambridge classes in the Tourism track take IGCSE ESL in year 3, Travel and Tourism in year 4 and Global Perspectives in year 5, taught in English with native speakers.
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: IGCSE (ages 14-16). IGCSE means exams at around Year 10 or 11, the British counterpart of a lower secondary leaving certificate.
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 hall
✓Laboratories
✓Theatre or assembly hall
✓Library
✓Catering
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Campus: A seven-storey building in northern Palermo, 100 metres from the San Lorenzo metro station: five multimedia computer labs, a science and physics lab, a practice travel agency with networked computers, a multimedia self-study language room, a film library, a library, two indoor gyms, an infirmary, a snack bar and an assembly hall; every classroom has an interactive monitor.
Clubs and activities: PASCH (Goethe-Institut partner schools, German courses) · EsaBac Techno (Italian-French dual diploma track)
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 sizenot stated
Most teachers are permanent and take regular training. Cambridge subjects are taught by regular teachers (the site names five teachers of English as a Second Language, Global Perspectives and Travel and Tourism) together with native-speaker 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 policy
The building has an infirmary. The school names inclusion as a core value and commits to fighting bullying and cyberbullying, gender stereotypes and violence.
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%)72 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 data65 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)85 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data85 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data64 "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