Rome : Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has announced plans to prohibit face coverings such as burqas and niqabs in schools, while also proposing a legal cap on the number of foreign students permitted in each classroom. Speaking at Fenix, a youth event organised by her Brothers of Italy party in Rome on Sunday, Meloni said a measure containing the proposed provisions would soon be presented to the Council of Ministers.
"So, a measure is about to reach the Council of Ministers that legally introduces a limit on the number of foreign students per class. A maximum number, clearly. And that's not all. It also introduces an obligation for parents of foreign students with severe integration issues at school to learn Italian and introduces a ban on burqas and niqabs in schools," she said.
The Prime Minister said the measures were aimed at ensuring that people coming to Italy to build their future learn the Italian language, understand the country's culture and respect its rules. "For us, anyone who comes to Italy and wants to build their future here must learn our language, know our culture, and respect our rules. It is the only serious way to welcome people," she added.
On the proposed ban on face coverings in schools, Meloni said students should attend school with their faces uncovered and linked the measure to gender equality. "Because you go to school with an uncovered face and because in Italy, no one, in the name of a real or presumed tradition, can decide that a young woman must hide herself. Gender equality is non-negotiable—not on our streets, and not in our schools," she said.
Meloni also said parents of foreign students experiencing severe difficulties with integration into the Italian school system would be required to learn Italian. The government has not yet specified the maximum number of foreign students that would be permitted in an individual class.
According to current data from research institute Fondazione ISMU, around 930,000 students without Italian citizenship are currently enrolled in schools across Italy, accounting for nearly 11.6 per cent of the country’s total school population.
Addressing higher education at the event, Meloni also spoke about changes to admission procedures for medical school. She said the government had scrapped the multiple-choice entrance test, describing it as an unfair mechanism that restricted opportunities.
"And then university—that transition where so many young people choose what they want to be for the years to come. Here too, we inherited a system that claimed in words to guarantee opportunity for everyone but in practice left some behind. We have unseated some of these mechanisms as well, starting with one of the biggest symbols of the senseless injustices created by left-wing governments: the multiple-choice entrance test for medical school. We scrapped this infernal mechanism because if you want to play the lottery, you buy a New Year's ticket—you don't enrol in university," she stated.
The announcements were made as Meloni outlined the government's proposed approach to integration in schools, including language requirements for parents of foreign students facing serious integration difficulties, a cap on foreign students per class and a ban on burqas and niqabs in schools.