High-school finals start for half a million pupils

(ANSA) - ROME, JUN 22 - Around half a million pupils in Italy started their high-school final exams with a written test for Italian on Wednesday.
    The students have to write an essay or analyse a text on the basis of the choice of seven options.
    It is the first time high-school leavers are doing written exams after two years of orals due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
    The obligation to wear facemasks has been dropped, although they are recommended.
    The exam started at 8:30 across the nation and pupils can take up to six hours to complete it.
    The seven options included the analysis of a poem by Giovanni Pascoli, a work written by Life Senator and Holocaust survivor Liliana Segre with former magistrate Gherardo Colombo, a speech given by Italian Nobel-prize-winning physicist Giorgio Parisi, and the subject of 'hyperconnectivity'. (ANSA).