← Back to the rankingLiceo Scientifico Statale Albert Einstein
Palermo, Italy · est. 1969 · State
Illustration · Palermo
The Liceo Scientifico Statale Albert Einstein is a state scientific liceo in Palermo, opened in 1969 as the city's third scientific liceo after the Cannizzaro liceo was split, and given its current name in 1982. It has 1220 students in 58 classes, 21 per class on average. Tracks: the traditional liceo scientifico, the scienze applicate option and, since 2022-2023, a biomedical track. Since 2017-2018 the liceo has been a Cambridge International School: in the Cambridge sections of both main tracks English is reinforced with native-speaker lessons, and subjects on the IGCSE syllabus (environmental management, plus computer science in scienze applicate) are taught in English with a native speaker, with international exams during grades 1-4. Lessons are taught in Italian; in the Cambridge sections part of the lessons is in English. The liceo prepares students for PET, FCE and CAE (according to the school, more than 80 students gain them each year) and EIPASS, and takes part in Erasmus+.
Key facts
Programmes
Cambridge · IGCSE · National programme
Languages of instruction
Italian, English
About the fees The liceo is a state school and charges no tuition. The voluntary contribution for the 2026-2027 school year is 60 euros, including a compulsory 20 euros for insurance. For Cambridge classes the contribution is compulsory - 250 euros for the 2026-2027 school year.
Admissions Enrolment in grade 1 follows the state online procedure; to confirm enrolment before the summer families email the school the lower secondary leaving certificate, the competence certificate, ID documents of both parents and the student, and for the Cambridge section an English certificate at level A2. For the Cambridge section an A2 certificate is required: recognised by the Ministry and testing all four skills (Flyers is not accepted); the school runs free preparation courses from about March. Foreign students also attend, although there are few of them; there are teachers specialised in Italian as a second language for children with a migrant background.
Stages and year groups Grades 1-5 scuola secondaria di secondo grado (liceo scientifico). Five-year liceo scientifico on the Italian curriculum with the esame di Stato. Tracks: Liceo Scientifico Ordinario, Scienze Applicate option, Biomedico (since 2022-2023, extra science, medical language and scientific reasoning methods), and in both main tracks Cambridge International sections (since 2017-2018). Cambridge section: English 5 hours a week in grades 1-2 (2 hours with a native speaker), 3 hours in grades 3-4 (1 hour with a native speaker); IGCSE Environmental Management in English with a native speaker, plus IGCSE Computer Science in scienze applicate; science partly with a native speaker in grades 1-4; IGCSE exams at the end of grades 2 and 4. According to the PTOF 2025-2028, IGCSE exams have also been taken in English as a second language, geography with history, mathematics and economics; 30 hours a week in the Cambridge section of the ordinario track.
Address Via A. Vivaldi 60, 90145 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 sections of the science lyceum add English with a native speaker and IGCSE Environmental Management in English, plus Computer Science in applied sciences; exams in years 2 and 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
Also on site: Makerspace
Campus: One seven-storey building with two lifts on Via Vivaldi in Palermo, well served by buses, tram and metro. There is a library with a reading room, the Mario Barreca assembly hall, drawing rooms, chemistry and science, physics, IT and language labs, earth science and renewable energy labs, an AutoCAD room and three gyms. All classrooms have smart panels and computers; the school has two robots for robotics lessons.
Clubs and activities: PET, FCE, CAE Language Certifications · Erasmus+ · Mathematics Olympiad · Chemistry Olympiad · Neuroscience Championships · Esperienza Insegna (science festival) · AutoCAD Course · EIPASS
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 have permanent contracts and more than five years of service, and the average age of staff has fallen; many, especially new teachers, hold language and IT certificates and support teaching qualifications, and there are specialists in Italian as a second language. In the Cambridge sections subjects are taught by teachers with certified English together with native-speaker teachers. The website does not give the number of 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 roomnot stated on the website
✓Counsellor
·Child protection policynot stated on the website
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
✓Anti-bullying policy
A psychological support service helps prevent difficulties among students; the school's plans include preventing study-related anxiety and burnout, and cyberbullying, involving students and families. According to the PTOF the building holds all safety certificates.
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 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