Over half a million pupils start high-school finals

(ANSA) - ROME, JUN 21 - The 'maturità' high-school final exams kicked off for 536,008 pupils from 27,895 classes on Wednesday with an Italian written test.
    This year the finals fully return to the format used before the COVID-19 pandemic, with two written exams (three in some cases) and a final oral test.
    Premier Giorgia Meloni and Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara both released messages on Tuesday wishing the students well ahead of the exams.
    In the Italian exam, students have to write an essay choosing from seven different options.
    These included analysis of texts from Alberto Moravia's The Indifferent Ones, Salvatore Quasimodo's The Incomparable Land, Federico Chabod's "idea of nation" and article on the 'Whatsapp era' by the writer Marco Belpoliti.
    Other options regarded a letter former education minister Patrizio Bianchi wrote to the academic world during the pandemic and reflections by much-loved late science TV host Piero Angela and late journalist and writer Oriana Fallaci. (ANSA).