ROME - When Italy held examinations to fill teaching positions in its public schools in late December for the first time since 1999, it set off something of a nationwide frenzy: More than 321,000 people applied to take the tests, pursuing just 11,500 job openings.

The ratio said as much about the dim job prospects in Italy, where the unemployment rate is more than 11 percent generally and nearly 14 percent for people ages 24 to 35, as it did about the public education system.

The exam is supposed to be held every three years, but the Education Ministry put it off repeatedly to save money, some critics say. In that time it filled vacancies with temporary hires, making aspiring teachers and unions furious.

Ministry officials say that the exam is intended to right past wrongs and to introduce a new generation of teachers to a work force whose average age is now 50, one of the highest in Europe, after freezing out young applicants for so long. But it was a sign of how widely the country's economic pain has spread that the average age of candidates taking the test this time was over 38.

Critics of the current system, with its permanent teachers and temporary hires working precariously for lower wages on contracts of a year or less, say it has become unworkable.

"It essentially kills young people, who are kept on a leash year after year," said Marco Paolo Nigi, secretary general of the national teachers' union, Snals-Confsal. "It's shameful. And it's a system we're trying to change."

The test is meant to measure logic, reading comprehension, and math and linguistic abilities. Questions included "What is a touch screen?" and choosing between "would" and "could" on the portion covering English language skills.

Some critics said the exam was a poor hiring tool because it could not measure attributes like a passion for learning.

"There are better ways to determine merit," said Romina De Cesaris, 37, a teacher of history and philosophy in Pescara, on the Adriatic coast, who has been working for 10 years on contracts. "This mega-quiz is offensive for those of us who have teaching backgrounds. You can pass a quiz and still not have the didactic competence to teach students."

More than 260,000 candidates took the test, trying to answer 50 questions in 50 minutes, and only about 34 percent passed.

Valentina, 34, who would give only her first name, has been practicing law in Rome for eight years, but she has not managed to get a full-time job at a law firm. So she considered changing careers and took the exam. "Maybe this will work," she said.

If she gets through written and oral exams, Valentina would enter the line for one of 118 nursery school teaching posts open in and around Rome, which pay about 1,200 euros (about $1,580) a month. "How sad," she said of her overall prospects.

Many critics of the Education Ministry protested its holding the test for new applicants while thousands of qualified teachers were already languishing.

Massimo Gargiulo, a spokesman for the Schools of Rome Committee, one of several groups working on behalf of teachers on temporary contracts, said, "The education system in Italy has had no overall planning."

Mr. Gargiulo said that there were already about 200,000 qualified teachers waiting to be hired. (The Education Ministry could not provide official statistics.)

"Right now, I have 50 people ahead of me to teach Greek in Rome, but the test will put tens of thousands of other contenders in the ranking," Mr. Gargiulo said. "It's not a competition, it's a lottery."

The New York Times

(China Daily 01/06/2013 page10)