Meloni plans to cap foreign students and ban burqas in Italian schools

Key Points:

• Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni announced plans to introduce legislation capping the number of foreign students in classrooms and banning face-covering garments like burqas and niqabs in schools to promote integration and preserve Italian cultural identity.
• The proposal includes limits on non-Italian students per classroom and mandates Italian-language lessons for parents of foreign pupils struggling to integrate, emphasizing the importance of learning the language and respecting Italian culture.
• Meloni argued that high concentrations of non-native speakers hinder integration and the learning process, stating that classrooms dominated by foreign-language speakers represent abandonment rather than integration.
• The legislation explicitly bans burqas and niqabs in educational institutions while allowing other Islamic dress such as the hijab, reinforcing the message that school attendance requires uncovered faces.
• The proposed measures will be reviewed by Italy’s Council of Ministers before being sent to Parliament, with Meloni’s government currently holding the record as Italy’s longest-serving uninterrupted administration in modern history.