Italy’s government approved a decree Thursday that caps the share of foreign pupils in classrooms at 30% and bans burqas and niqabs from schools, a measure Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni described as a step toward a school system that integrates without abandoning rules — even as opponents cast it as an attempt to blunt a rising rival on the far right ahead of elections expected in 2027.
“Today, the Council of Ministers approved the decree on schools,” Meloni wrote on social media after the cabinet meeting. She said the measure includes “a 30% cap on the number of students per class who do not have an adequate command of Italian, more tools for learning our language, and a ban on the burqa and niqab in schools.”
“These are common-sense measures that do not divide but rather foster genuine integration, preventing the formation of ‘ghetto classrooms’ and ensuring equal opportunities for all students,” she said, adding that the government intends to keep following “a school system that integrates without abandoning rules, supports those facing the greatest challenges, and puts everyone in a position to start from the same baseline.”
Fines Parents Who Skip Italian Classes
Under the draft decree, the 30% cap will take effect in primary school classrooms starting in the 2027-28 school year, applying to pupils who are not Italian nationals, were not born in Italy, or have attended fewer than two years of nursery school in the country. The decree also sets fines of up to €1,000 ($1,137) for anyone who enters school premises wearing a face covering, which members of the ruling coalition describe as a symbol of Islamist oppression and a lack of respect for women’s dignity.
A political test ahead of 2027
The decree comes as Meloni faces pressure from National Future, a party founded in February by former army general Roberto Vannacci that is already polling at around 8%, while surveys show her coalition trailing the center-left bloc. National Future has made schools central to its campaign, calling for “remigration” — the deportation of foreigners to their countries of origin — and arguing that Islamic “contamination” in classrooms damages national identity.
Meloni first outlined the school plan Sunday at a rally of the youth wing of her Brothers of Italy party, where she said parents of children who do not speak Italian would be required to attend language courses. The announcement followed her unveiling last week of a partial rollback of Italy’s unpopular road tax, in what appeared to be part of a broader effort to shore up coalition support before the 2027 vote.
School principals have raised concerns that the cap will be difficult to enforce in areas with large immigrant populations, particularly in northern Italy. The draft decree says that if demand exceeds the 30% threshold, education authorities will redistribute pupils among nearby schools based on family needs and access to education, without specifying how that would work in practice. President Sergio Mattarella, who must sign off on the decree, has said he is wary of placing barriers on education.
Language rules carry fines for parents
Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara told a news conference at Palazzo Chigi that roughly 34,000 school classes in Italy currently exceed the new 30% threshold. He said first-generation foreign students arrive with one year less preparation in Italian, and that the “implicit dropout” rate — a failure to reach required academic competencies — stands at 10% for foreign students, compared with 5.7% for Italians. “Our goal is to place the Italian language at the center as a major tool for integration; knowing Italian means integrating,” Valditara said, adding that the measure differs from past circulars that addressed only small numbers of foreign students per class.
The decree also targets parents directly. Citing OECD research on the importance of parental involvement in a child’s education, Valditara said schools will be required to report serious cases of integration difficulty to social services, which will arrange Italian-language courses for parents. Those who fail to complete the courses face fines of €200 to €1,000. An earlier draft of the decree had proposed removing a child from the family home in cases of parental non-compliance, a provision that did not appear in the version approved Thursday.
According to the ISMU Foundation, about 900,000 foreign students attend Italian schools, making up 11.6% of the total student population; roughly 43% come from other European countries and 32% have African backgrounds. Opposition leaders condemned the decree, with Democratic Party leader Elly Schlein calling it “a shameful decree that seeks to hide the government’s inability to address the real problems of the public school system behind a new ideological banner.”
Immigration remains politically sensitive in Italy even though the country’s immigrant population share is lower than in several European peers — about 12% in 2025, compared with 21% in Germany and 19% in Spain, according to Rockwool Foundation data.
