← Back to the rankingScuola Italiana Alcide De Gasperi
La Serena, Chile · est. 1991 · Private
Illustration · La Serena
Scuola Italiana Alcide De Gasperi was founded in 1991 in La Serena by descendants of families from Trentino who arrived at the port of Coquimbo in 1951; the school bears the name of the Italian statesman from Trentino. It is run by the Fundación Scuola Italiana Alcide De Gasperi, and in 2026 it has 801 students. The school is bilingual and bicultural, Italian and Spanish, with English taught as a foreign language; its project is based on a humanist and Christian education following Don Bosco's preventive system. The Chilean programme runs from kindergarten to IV Medio, and graduates sit the Chilean PAES exam: the 2025 class of 43 ranked third by average scores among the five best schools in the Coquimbo region. The Italian paritaria status, since the 2022-2023 school year, covers the kindergarten, primary school and lower secondary school; the upper grades follow the Chilean programme with Italian studied up to graduate level.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $3 907–5 346 a year
380 000–520 000 CLP a month
The year is counted as ten payments: the school does not say how many payments it takes.
Programmes
Italian programme · National programme
Admits from
3 years · Pre-School
Languages of instruction
Italian, Spanish
Registration fee
≈ $87
85 000 CLP
About the fees Fees for the 2026 school year, published by the school as a reference: 10 monthly payments - Nivel Medio Mayor 380000 pesos, Pre-Kinder and Kinder 410000 pesos, grades 1-4 465000 pesos, grades 5-8 495000 pesos, I-IV Medio 520000 pesos. The second child pays 90%, the third 85%.
Admissions Admission for 2027 opens on 26 May 2026; places are available in Nivel Medio Mayor and Pre-Kinder and in grades 1, 2 and 3. Age on 31 March: 3 for Nivel Medio Mayor, 4 for Pre-Kinder, 5 for Kinder, 6 for grade 1. First the family submits documents (reports, personal development report, birth certificate), which the management reviews: marks of very good in all subjects and traits are required. Then registration with a fee of 85000 pesos, tests and a parent interview. Young children are assessed on cognitive, motor, language and social skills (70% of the final result) plus a parent interview (30%); from grade 1 there are tests in Spanish and mathematics and an assessment of social skills. At least 70% is required on each test, and if places are contested the best results win. Each class has one place for children with permanent special educational needs. The family undertakes to accept the school's project and internal rules.
Stages and year groups Grades Nivel Medio Mayor, Pre-Kinder, Kinder, 1-12. Italian track, paritaria since the 2022-2023 school year under MAECI and Italian education ministry decree 4815/0123: scuola dell'infanzia (Nivel Medio Mayor, Pre-Kinder, Kinder), scuola primaria and secondaria di primo grado; the curriculum is a vertical Italian curricolo from kindergarten to lower secondary, with Italian, Spanish and English. Chilean track: from kindergarten to IV Medio (enseñanza básica 1-8 and enseñanza media I-IV), graduating with the licenciatura de enseñanza media and the PAES exam. The site does not name a paritaria liceo or an Italian esame di Stato at the end of school.
Address Avenida El Santo 3705, La Serena
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
MAECIItaly's foreign ministry names the school on its list of paritarie Italian schools abroad: it teaches the Italian curriculum, and Italy recognises its exams and diploma on a par with state schools. Parity covers the kindergarten, the primary school and the scuola media; the upper years follow the Chilean curriculum, and the school has no Italian liceo.
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
MAECIItaly's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI)
An Italian school abroad: a state or paritaria school, the Italian curriculum, the esame di Stato exam and a diploma with the same legal value as in Italy.
What the badge means for this school. This is an Italian school abroad: it teaches the Italian curriculum, and Italy's foreign ministry names it on its list of state or paritarie schools - so Italy recognises its exams and diploma. The entry is not a quality inspection. Which stages are recognised and what the school charges are on this page and on the school's own website. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →Italian programme
The Italian school curriculum taught in Italian: scuola dell'infanzia, primaria, secondaria di primo grado (scuola media) and the liceo, ending with the state exam, the esame di Stato, and the Italian diploma.
What this means for this school. The curriculum is set by the Italian state: the school is an Italian state school abroad or a paritaria school, recognised by Italy. Exams follow Italian rules and the diploma has the same legal value as in Italy, giving access to Italian universities. The host country's curriculum usually runs alongside, and students receive two certificates.
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
Exam results PAES 2025 (Chilean university entrance exam): a class of 43, with the average language and mathematics score higher than in the three previous years; third place among the five schools with the best scores in the Coquimbo region. 28 of 39 students scored over 800 points in at least one test, and four students scored 975 points in mathematics.
Facilities from the school's official website
·Swimming poolnot stated on the website
✓Sports hall
✓Laboratories
·Theatre or assembly hallnot stated on the website
·Librarynot stated on the website
✓Catering
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Campus: The school is in La Serena on Avenida El Santo, on a single site. It has the Polo delle Scienze «Galileo Galilei» laboratory complex with physics, chemistry, biology, natural science and mathematics labs; in 2026 a solar power plant of 251 panels opened on it, and students use its data in lessons. There is an assembly hall, a chapel, a sports hall and a canteen, where lunch costs 5000 pesos in 2026. In 2026 the school is building a new kindergarten building and a new sports hall. It is a day school with no boarding.
Clubs and activities: Biology Workshop
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 school names its leadership (rector, pedagogical coordinator) and in its news recognises teachers with 20 and 30 years of service at the school; the site does not publish the total number of teachers or their qualifications. According to the school project, teachers teach Italian through language immersion following European guidelines.
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
·Counsellornot stated on the website
✓Child protection policy
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
·Anti-bullying policynot stated on the website
The school has a school safety plan, internal rules including school climate rules, accident insurance rules and health and safety rules; there is a school climate (convivencia escolar) area and an inclusion team of specialists.
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 data80 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 data75 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data61 "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