Formed 1861 | Headquarters Rome, Italy | |
Jurisdiction Council of Ministers of Italy Minister responsible Valeria Fedeli (PD), Minister of Public Education Website www.pubblica.istruzione.it | ||
The Ministry of Public Education (Italian: Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione, or MPI) was the government body of the Italian Republic devoted to the administration of the national education system in three separate periods (1861-1929; 1944-2001; 2006-2008). In May 2008 it has been merged into the present-day Ministry of Education, Universities and Research (MIUR).
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History
Set up in 1861 under the Cavour cabinet, it was suppressed on 12 September 1929 by Benito Mussolini's cabinet, and replaced by the Ministero dell'Educazione Nazionale (Ministry of National Education). This name persisted until 29 May 1944 (i.e. until under the second cabinet of Pietro Badoglio), and the second Ivanoe Bonomi cabinet had it revert to its original name (della Pubblica Istruzione).
It remained unchanged until 14 December 1974, when Giovanni Spadolini (then head of government) created the Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali, which took over responsibilities and functions from this and other ministries. In 1988, the Ministero dell'Università e della Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica also subsumed some of the education ministry's responsibilities. In the first Romano Prodi cabinet the two were merged into the Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione, Università, Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica, then the Ministero dell'istruzione, dell'università e della ricerca (MIUR) in the second and third Silvio Berlusconi cabinets. The two were re-separated in the second Prodi cabinet of 17 May 2006, but then re-merged in the fourth Berlusconi cabinet of 7 May 2007.
Organization
At its end in 2007, the Ministry consisted of (2007):