Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has announced plans to introduce legislation banning burqas and niqabs in schools, setting a statutory maximum on the number of foreign students allowed in individual classes and requiring some foreign parents to learn Italian as part of new measures focused on school integration.
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Meloni announced the proposals on Sunday while addressing Fenix, an event organised by the youth wing of her Brothers of Italy party. She said the measures would soon be presented to the cabinet.
“A measure will soon be presented to a cabinet meeting to legally establish a maximum number of foreign students per class,” Meloni said.
She added that the proposed measure would require parents of foreign students experiencing serious difficulties integrating into the school system to learn Italian and would prohibit burqas and niqabs in schools.
Meloni did not state the precise maximum number or percentage of foreign students that would be permitted in each classroom under the proposed legislation.
She argued that limiting the concentration of students who do not speak Italian adequately would help integration and prevent situations in which language difficulties affect the wider classroom.
“If there is only one child in a class who doesn’t understand Italian, that child will likely be able to learn the language and integrate quickly with the help of classmates and teachers. However, if the number of children who don’t understand the language becomes large, or even the majority, that is no longer integration; it is neglect,” she said.
Meloni also defended the proposed restriction on face coverings in schools, linking it to identification and her government’s position on gender equality.
“You must go to school with your face uncovered, and in Italy no one, in the name of a real or supposed tradition, can decide that a young woman must hide herself,” she said.
She also said Italian children should not find themselves feeling marginalised because they had become a minority in their classrooms. ANSA reported her as saying that such a situation “cannot” be allowed.
The proposed restriction comes against the backdrop of existing Italian rules governing the concentration of foreign students in classrooms.
Italy has had administrative guidance since 2010 setting a general limit of 30 per cent for students without Italian citizenship in a class, although exceptions can be made depending on factors such as students’ Italian language proficiency.
Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara said on September 11 that the 30 per cent threshold was contained in a circular that had largely not been implemented. He said the government intended to introduce legislation giving clearer directions and allowing regional school authorities to coordinate the distribution of students among schools.
The president of Italy’s National Association of Head Teachers, Antonello Giannelli, said implementing such a limit could present practical difficulties, particularly where schools are required to admit children living within their local areas and those communities have large foreign populations.
Foreign students currently account for about 11.6 per cent of school enrolment in Italy, according to figures cited in reports on the government’s proposal.
The planned prohibition of burqas and niqabs in schools would also strengthen existing Italian rules concerning clothing that conceals a person’s identity.
Italy does not presently have a nationwide law expressly banning the burqa or niqab in all public places. Existing legislation dating from 1975 restricts the use of helmets, garments or other items that prevent identification without a justified reason.
Italy’s highest administrative court has previously held that full face coverings worn for religious or cultural reasons may be permitted provided the wearer reveals the face when identification is required.
The issue has attracted increased political attention in recent months. Education Minister Valditara said in August that he supported prohibiting garments such as burqas and niqabs in schools, arguing that face coverings raised questions concerning identification, social interaction and equality between men and women.
Meloni’s announcement means the government now intends to move beyond administrative guidance by putting restrictions on foreign student numbers and face coverings in schools on a legislative footing.
However, the precise details of the proposed law, including the maximum number of foreign students that would be permitted in a class and how exemptions would operate, have not yet been published. The proposal will also have to proceed through Italy’s legislative process before becoming law.
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