Bologna, September 15, 2026 – First bell: today. In the region, the classes are 24,312, of which 9,041 are in high schools: Bologna has 5,105 classes, followed by Modena with 4,187 and Reggio Emilia with 2,911. Just over 43% of the more than 500,000 students attend high schools, while almost 57% are divided between technical and vocational schools.
The private schools are almost a thousand, of which 762 are kindergartens. The new school principals are 27: 22 women and five men, with an average age of 55 years. Ten have been assigned to Bologna, five to Ravenna, four to Piacenza, three to Forlì-Cesena, three to Modena, one to Ferrara, and one to Rimini.
In total, there will be 480 principals leading the 515 state schools, of which 312 are in the first cycle and 168 in the second cycle. There are, instead, more than 35 acting principals, 7% down compared to previous
years. Finally, there are 64,115 teachers, of whom 17,181 are support teachers, while the Ata (secretaries, technicians, and school collaborators) number 15,395.
“To all the girls and boys, to the young girls and boys, to their families, to the teachers, to the school principals, to the educational staff, and to the many who with their work, dedication, and passion are able to make the school an irreplaceable place of growth and enrichment, we extend our most sincere and affectionate wishes for a school year full of discoveries, relationships, and opportunities. Here a new piece of the future for our community takes shape,” is the message received in recent days from Governor Michele de Pascale and the School Councillor Isabella Conti.
Today the president will be in Ravenna, at the ‘Olivetti-Callegari’ Vocational Institute and the ‘Dante Alighieri’ classical high school where the inauguration of two completely renovated gyms is planned. The councillor, on the other hand, will be in Bologna, at the ‘Ferrari’ primary school and the ‘Leonardo da Vinci’ secondary school. Other members of the Council will also attend various institutions in the Region on the occasion of the first bell.
Bruno Di Palma: “Do not measure your worth through likes”
Unmissable wishes on the eve of returning to class from the Director General of the Regional School Office, Bruno Di Palma: “Do not measure your worth through likes and the often illusory models of digital. At the same time, “do not be afraid of difficulties and do not hesitate to ask for help when necessary”.
In his message, Di Palma invites students to have “the courage to think and desire big, not to settle, and to believe that tomorrow can be better thanks to your energy.”
Studying, the director of the USR emphasizes, “is not only to get a higher grade but to give you the right tools to be free people and build a better future. Do not be spectators of your path, but be the creators of every achievement”.
Read more Casini becomes a grandfather: little Camillo is born. “But keep calling me Pier Ferdinando”
Di Palma also hopes that this new school year “can be a time to live in the spirit of well-being at school, listening, and care. A time in which all emotions find space, even those we often find harder to welcome. Learning to recognize what we feel, to listen to it, and transform it into awareness is an essential part of our personal growth”.
He also stresses: “We live in a society that often seems to measure people’s value through success, performance, appearance, and speed, and where failure is perceived as something to hide.”
School, on the other hand, “is called to perform an even more important function: to be a place of learning, but also of relationship, listening, responsibility, and humanity, to leave no one behind and to value each person’s inclinations.” School “does not educate only through what it teaches, but also through how it welcomes, listens, includes, and accompanies”.
The open schools project on August 31 returns in 2027
In some primary schools in the area, classrooms have already opened since August 31 with the experimentation promoted by the Region, “September together,” which thanks to the collaboration of the Municipalities has voluntarily offered families two weeks of free extracurricular activities, involving 40 Municipalities of the 14 Atuss involved, 143 educational institutions, and 16 private schools. Of the 8,005 participants, about 600 (7.5%) are children with disabilities.
In Bologna 1,742 applications were submitted and 1,323 children attended, Piacenza counts 445 applications and 445 attendees, Parma 643 and 632. In Modena there were 1,545 applications and 890 attendees, in Reggio Emilia 743 and 730; in Ferrara there are 250 applications and 196 participants; in Forlì 763 and 755, in the Cesena area 265 and 265; in Ravenna 645 and 598; in the Terre d’Argine Union 647 and 647.
Rimini 315 applications and 315 children beneficiaries; the Romagna Faentina Union 331 and 331, the New Imola District 476 and 445, and the Bassa Romagna Union 443 and 433.
“From next year we want ‘September together’ to become a structural measure, potentially extended to all 330 Municipalities of Emilia-Romagna, within the future regional law for supporting birth rates and parenting. And the path from now to 2027 will be built through listening, evaluation, and participation,” anticipate de Pascale and Conti.
