Italy Approves School Decree Capping Non-Italian Speakers, Banning Full-Face Veils

Italy's conservative government approved a school decree on Thursday that caps classrooms at 30% of students with insufficient Italian-language skills and prohibits full-face Islamic veils, including burqas and niqabs.

The government of Premier Giorgia Meloni said the measures are meant to encourage integration through language learning and to provide additional support for newly arrived students. The decree takes effect immediately but must be endorsed by parliament within 60 days, where Meloni's coalition holds a majority.

Educators, unions and opposition parties criticised the plan as difficult to enforce and politically motivated, warning it could disrupt enrolment in areas with large migrant populations. Teachers' unions said they were not properly consulted and that the accompanying 14-million-euro ($16 million) funding package would be insufficient to hire the specialised language teachers and cultural mediators needed to support students.

At the Di Donato state elementary school in Rome's Esquilino neighbourhood, parents waiting to collect their children voiced concern. Jannatur Nayeem, who was born in Bangladesh and attended the school as a child, now has a child enrolled there. She questioned how the 30% limit would be applied in a school with a high share of foreign students and where those not admitted would go, noting they would face long commutes without clear alternatives.

Margherita Gentile, a parent and president of the school's parents' association, said multi-ethnic classrooms place greater demands on teachers, who need more tools to handle that complexity. "You cannot just tackle a complex issue with simple solutions," she said.

Primary school teacher Giovanni Castagno described differences as an opportunity that must be seized, saying they enrich classes' view of the world in almost every case.

Antonello Giannelli, president of the National Association of School Principals, called the pedagogical rationale sensible, citing international research that learning improves with less need to concentrate, but said the real problems are practical. He noted that in districts predominantly inhabited by immigrants there may be only one school, and that young children, perhaps in first grade, can hardly be expected to travel kilometres from their homes.

On social media, Meloni wrote that the decree contained "common-sense measures that do not divide but help foster genuine integration," avoiding "ghetto" classrooms and giving all students equal opportunities. With elections possible as early as next spring, analysts say the measures allow the premier to reassert her credentials on issues central to her conservative base.