Italy is preparing to ban face coverings such as burqas and niqabs in schools and introduce a limit on the number of foreign students allowed in each class, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Sunday.
Meloni announced the planned measures while addressing an annual youth gathering organised by her Brothers of Italy party, as she highlighted her government’s position on migration and integration.
Government plans new classroom limits
Meloni said a measure would soon be presented to the Cabinet to establish a maximum number of foreign students permitted in a single class.
She did not specify what the proposed limit would be.
The measure would also require parents of foreign students experiencing serious difficulties integrating into the Italian school system to learn Italian, according to Meloni.
The prime minister argued that the concentration of students who do not understand Italian in the same classroom could make integration more difficult.
“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,” Meloni said.
“But 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 added.
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Burqas and niqabs to be prohibited
The proposed rules would also ban burqas and niqabs in schools.
Meloni defended the measure by arguing that students should attend school with their faces uncovered.
“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.
Italy has been a major destination and transit point for migrants arriving across the central Mediterranean, making immigration and integration politically sensitive issues.
The integration of migrants, particularly those from Muslim-majority countries, has remained a contentious issue in Italian politics, with debates frequently focusing on religious symbols, immigration policy, citizenship and cultural integration.
According to research institution Fondazione ISMU, students who are not Italian citizens make up 11.6% of pupils enrolled in Italian schools, meaning nearly 12 out of every 100 students are foreign nationals.
