Italy to ban burqa in schools, limit foreign pupils

Key Points:

• Italy's conservative government, led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, approved a decree banning face-covering Islamic veils such as burqas and niqabs in schools and limiting the percentage of students with poor Italian language skills per classroom to 30%.
• The decree applies immediately but requires parliamentary approval within 60 days; it restricts foreign students without sufficient Italian proficiency in primary and secondary schools and imposes fines up to €1,000 for non-compliance.
• Meloni framed the measures as promoting integration and equal opportunities, calling the burqa ban a security issue and emphasizing the importance of preventing "ghetto classes."
• Critics, including opposition parties and child rights groups like Save the Children, argue the decree risks discrimination, forcing students to attend distant schools and creating divisions between "first-class" and "second-class" students.
• The decree affects a small portion of classrooms (about 0.3%), but has sparked controversy amid concerns over its impact on migrant communities and accusations that the government is politicizing immigration ahead of upcoming elections.