← Back to the rankingLiceo Scientifico Statale Galileo Galilei
Potenza, Italy · est. 1953 · State
Illustration · Potenza
Liceo Galileo Galilei is a state scientific liceo in Potenza, the capital of Basilicata. It was established in 1953 (a first class ran from 1950-1951), became independent in 1963-1964 and took Galileo's name in 1966; in the 1980s it moved to a large complex on Via Anzio, and in 2004 a second scientific liceo was opened in the city because of growing enrolment. The school now has 53 classes with an average of 20 students. Tracks: the main scientific liceo (with legal-economic and Cambridge options) and the applied sciences liceo (with a legal-economic option), plus biomedical and geology-environment courses and the Liceo Matematico project. Lessons are in Italian; in the Cambridge option some subjects are taught in English by native speakers, with Cambridge exams in years 2 and 4. The Intercultura foundation named the school among the five most international schools in Italy for its system of individual student exchanges.
Key facts
Programmes
Cambridge · IGCSE · National programme
Languages of instruction
Italian, English
About the fees The school is state-run and tuition is free. The Cambridge course carries a fee: families pay the amount set by the school council by 30 June, and in years 2 and 4 it includes the compulsory exams; the school mentions the course fee without stating an amount.
Admissions Year 1 enrolment is through the national online procedure (Iscrizioni online) and is then completed at the school; families may apply for exemption from school fees. Families in the Cambridge option sign the course regulations and pay the amount set by the school council by 30 June. The site describes no special selection for the Cambridge option. According to the PTOF, foreign students follow a reception procedure: an entry language test or skills check, Italian as a second language, an individual learning plan where needed and a cultural mediator for families; in 2025-2026 two newly arrived students attend. The school encourages a study year abroad in years 3 and 4.
Stages and year groups Grades 1-5 scuola secondaria di secondo grado. A five-year liceo following the Italian curriculum with the esame di Stato. Tracks: liceo scientifico di ordinamento (with giuridico-economico and CAMBRIDGE options) and liceo scientifico opzione scienze applicate (with a giuridico-economico option); courses in biology with a biomedical focus and science with a geology-environment-energy focus, and the Liceo Matematico project. The Cambridge option has run since 2015-2016: in years 1-2 English as a Second Language and Geography (replaced by Global Perspectives in year 1) with IGCSE exams at the end of year 2; in years 3-4 Biology and B2-C1 level English with exams at the end of year 4; 2 hours a week per subject, about 66 hours a year, with external native-speaker or C2-certified teachers. Cambridge syllabuses are combined with the Italian ones through CLIL. Exam papers are handled and sent to Cambridge by a school committee.
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 option of the science lyceum covers IGCSE English and Geography or Global Perspectives in years 1-2 and Biology in years 3-4, 2 hours each with native speakers; exams are compulsory.
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
Clubs and activities: Physics Olympiad · Mathematics Olympiad · Asimov Prize · Team Robonova (civic monitoring project) · Heritage Championships · Erasmus+ · International Student Mobility · ECDL · Archery
Teaching staff
The school publishes neither the number of its teachers nor their qualifications.
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 policy
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
·Anti-bullying policynot stated on the website
In 2025-2026, under the PNRR programme, a school psychologist met all classes, and four 10-hour courses on adolescence, communication and online safety were held for parents of years 1-2 and incoming students. There is an inclusion plan, reception procedures for foreign students and students with learning difficulties, and school regulations.
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 data75 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