← Back to the rankingLiceo Statale G. A. De Cosmi
Palermo, Italy · est. 1862 · State
Illustration · Palermo
Liceo De Cosmi is a state liceo in Palermo with a long history: it descends from the boys' Scuola Normale for training primary teachers, opened in Palermo in January 1862, and since 1890 it has been named after the 18th-century educator Giovanni Agostino De Cosmi. Today it has three tracks: human sciences, its economic and social option, and languages. In 2025-2026 it had 1092 students in 55 classes, across three buildings in the city. Lessons are taught in Italian. Since 2023 the school has run a Cambridge International course: Global Perspectives, English as a Second Language, Geography in English and French as a Foreign Language on Cambridge syllabuses, with IGCSE exams; the first students have already passed them. The liceo prepares students for English, French and Spanish language certificates, has run a Chinese course, organises language stays in the UK, France and Spain and exchanges with schools across Europe.
Key facts
Programmes
Cambridge · IGCSE · National programme
Languages of instruction
Italian, English
Languages taught
French, German, Spanish, Latin
About the fees The school is a state school and tuition is free. The Cambridge International course is funded by a family contribution under the school's rules; the school mentions the course surcharge without an amount. According to the PTOF the school pays half or all of the cost of trips, theatre and cinema for students from families in difficulty.
Admissions Grade 1 enrolment follows the state online procedure, announced by circular usually in November. The Cambridge International course requires an English certificate of at least A2. According to the PTOF the school has students with non-Italian citizenship and children of foreign parents, and their number is growing; the school sets their inclusion as a goal.
Stages and year groups Grades 1-5 scuola secondaria di secondo grado. Five-year liceo on the Italian curriculum with the esame di Stato. Tracks: liceo delle scienze umane, liceo delle scienze umane opzione economico-sociale (English and a second language chosen from French, Spanish or German) and liceo linguistico (English, French, German or Spanish; one subject taught in a foreign language from grade 3, two from grade 4). Cambridge International course since 2023: IGCSE Global Perspectives, English as a Second Language, Geography in English and French as a Foreign Language; the English exam is at the end of grade 2, Global Perspectives and Geography at the end of grade 3 or the start of grade 4. From 2026-2027 the school also runs a section preparing for Cambridge English language exams.
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
Cambridge · IGCSE · authorised programmeThe Cambridge register names the school as its centre; it teaches Cambridge IGCSE. The Cambridge International course covers IGCSE Global Perspectives, English as a Second Language, Geography taught in English and French as a Foreign Language, with exams in years 2-4.
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
·Cateringnot stated on the website
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Campus: Three buildings in Palermo: on Via Leonardo Ruggeri, on Via Saverio Friscia, which houses the head's office and administration, and on Viale Michelangelo. According to the PTOF the classrooms are small but all have interactive whiteboards; there are two gyms, three computer labs (one for flipped classroom teaching), two language labs, physics and chemistry labs, a library, an assembly hall and rooms for learning support. The school itself writes that being spread across buildings hampers some projects.
Clubs and activities: School Newspaper · Newspaper in the Classroom · Libriamoci (reading aloud) · Reading and Creative Writing Workshops · Afternoon Sports Activities · Erasmus+ (international exchanges) · Chinese Language Course
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
The Cambridge course is taught by the school's teachers: an exams officer who also teaches English as a Second Language and Global Perspectives, two geography teachers and a French teacher; the school names the Cambridge course team. The school does not publish staff numbers.
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 roomnot stated on the website
✓Counsellor
·Child protection policynot stated on the website
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
·Anti-bullying policynot stated on the website
A psychological help desk is staffed by a psychologist from the ASP Palermo health service, as part of an addiction prevention programme. At the start of the year all grade 1 classes take communication and group relations workshops with the human sciences teachers; students without computers are lent tablets.
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 data60 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)85 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data80 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