Cabinet passes controversial law setting a 30 per cent limit on non-Italian-speaking students per class and outlawing full-face veils, amid backlash from the opposition.Italy's council of ministers has approved a decree-law imposing a binding 30 per cent cap on foreign students who do not speak adequate Italian in each first-year classroom, alongside a ban on the burqa and niqab in schools.The measure, adopted on Thursday, follows days of controversy after prime minister Giorgia Meloni first floated the plans at a Fratelli d'Italia youth rally last weekend. It also introduces compulsory Italian classes for foreign parents whose children fall seriously behind at school, with fines of €200 to €1,000 for both the veil ban and non-attendance at the language courses.How the cap will work The 30 per cent threshold applies to the first-year classes of primary, middle and secondary schools - not to entire year groups - and is based on Italian-language proficiency rather than nationality, so EU and non-EU citizens are treated alike. It will apply to new enrolments from the 2027/2028 school year, with existing classes left untouched. Pupils who have already completed two years of Italian nursery school, or three years elsewhere in the Italian system, are exempt. Local education authorities will be responsible for redistributing pupils who exceed the threshold to nearby schools, taking into account family circumstances, disabilities and how easily a pupil can reach an alternative school - flexibilities that observers say leave considerable room for interpretation. Education minister Giuseppe Valditara said the rule would affect around 1,000 classrooms nationally, or roughly 0.3 per cent of the total, and stressed that already-formed classes for the current school year would not be broken up. The decree sets aside €3.4 million in 2027 and €14.1 million a year from 2028 for language-support courses in schools that fall outside the cap. A non-binding 30 per cent limit already existed under a 2010 ministerial circular issued by then education minister Mariastella Gelmini, but it allowed wide exemptions and was largely left to individual schools. Critics note the new decree changes little in practice beyond making the limit compulsory. The burqa ban and Meloni's "ghetto" comments The decree bans pupils, staff and parents from covering their faces during school activities, "save for proven health or security reasons", with the same €200 to €1,000 fine applying to parents when the offender is a minor. Although Meloni had spoken of a "burqa ban" in the run-up to the vote, the final text does not name the garment specifically, referring instead to face coverings in general. Campaigners point out that the burqa and niqab are worn by only a small number of women in Italy. Announcing the decree on social media, Meloni called the measures "tools of common sense that don't divide, but help integrate properly, avoiding ghetto classrooms and giving all students the same opportunities." She added that the government wanted "a school that integrates without giving up on rules, that supports those who struggle most and that puts everyone in a position to start from the same point."The "ghetto" language echoes a public spat with President Sergio Mattarella, who used his own opening-of-school-year address in Amatrice to warn against "ghetto schools" and call for policies that unite rather than divide. Meloni responded on Rai's Porta a Porta news talk show by noting that Mattarella, as education minister more than 35 years ago, had issued circulars discouraging the concentration of foreign pupils in the same classes. The numbers According to the latest education ministry figures, just over 911,000 of Italy's more than 7.7 million pupils, from nursery to secondary school, do not hold Italian citizenship. Of 52,392 schools nationwide, 4,664 already have more than 30 per cent non-Italian pupils, concentrated mostly in the north and centre of the country. Opposition and union reaction Elly Schlein, leader of the opposition Partito Democratico (PD), called it "a shameful decree that tries to hide the government's inability to respond to the real problems of public education behind a new ideological banner," pointing instead to crumbling school buildings, textbook costs of over €500 a year for families and teachers' salaries among the lowest in Europe. She accused the government of launching a "witch-hunt at the expense of children." Nicola Fratoianni, leader of Alleanza Verdi e Sinistra (AVS) called the decree "an unworthy piece of propaganda on the backs of children," insisting there are no "different" children in Italian classrooms, only children who study, play and grow up together. School leaders and unions have also raised doubts. Antonello Giannelli, president of Italy's national association of school principals, said the issue was "well-founded and valid from an educational point of view, but difficult to translate into a workable solution," while teaching unions criticised the lack of consultation and additional resources behind the measure. Principals have separately warned the cap risks forcing families in areas with large migrant communities to send children to schools far from home. Commentators have linked the decree's timing to Meloni's efforts to shore up support on the right ahead of Italy's 2027 general election, amid competition from Roberto Vannacci's Futuro Nazionale party, which has campaigned for tougher rules on foreign pupils. The decree is not yet in force: it must still be signed by President Mattarella and published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale, after which parliament has 60 days to convert it into law or see it lapse.

Italy's council of ministers has approved a decree-law imposing a binding 30 per cent cap on foreign students who do not speak adequate Italian in each first-year classroom, alongside a ban on the burqa and niqab in schools.

The measure, adopted on Thursday, follows days of controversy after prime minister Giorgia Meloni first at a Fratelli d'Italia youth rally last weekend. It also introduces compulsory Italian classes for foreign parents whose children fall seriously behind at school, with fines of €200 to €1,000 for both the veil ban and non-attendance at the language courses. The 30 per cent threshold applies to the first-year classes of primary, middle and secondary schools - not to entire year groups - and is based on Italian-language proficiency rather than nationality, so EU and non-EU citizens are treated alike. It will apply to new enrolments from the 2027/2028 school year, with existing classes left untouched. Pupils who have already completed two years of Italian nursery school, or three years elsewhere in the Italian system, are exempt. Local education authorities will be responsible for redistributing pupils who exceed the threshold to nearby schools, taking into account family circumstances, disabilities and how easily a pupil can reach an alternative school - flexibilities that observers say leave considerable room for interpretation. Education minister Giuseppe Valditara said the rule would affect around 1,000 classrooms nationally, or roughly 0.3 per cent of the total, and stressed that already-formed classes for the current school year would not be broken up. The decree sets aside €3.4 million in 2027 and €14.1 million a year from 2028 for language-support courses in schools that fall outside the cap. A non-binding 30 per cent limit already existed under a 2010 ministerial circular issued by then education minister Mariastella Gelmini, but it allowed wide exemptions and was largely left to individual schools. Critics note the new decree changes little in practice beyond making the limit compulsory. The decree bans pupils, staff and parents from covering their faces during school activities, "save for proven health or security reasons", with the same €200 to €1,000 fine applying to parents when the offender is a minor. Although Meloni had spoken of a "burqa ban" in the run-up to the vote, the final text does not name the garment specifically, referring instead to face coverings in general. Campaigners point out that the burqa and niqab are worn by only a small number of women in Italy. Announcing the decree on social media, Meloni called the measures "tools of common sense that don't divide, but help integrate properly, avoiding ghetto classrooms and giving all students the same opportunities." She added that the government wanted "a school that integrates without giving up on rules, that supports those who struggle most and that puts everyone in a position to start from the same point."

The "ghetto" language echoes a public spat with President Sergio Mattarella, who used his own opening-of-school-year address in Amatrice to warn against "ghetto schools" and call for policies that unite rather than divide. Meloni responded on Rai's Porta a Porta news talk show by noting that Mattarella, as education minister more than 35 years ago, had issued circulars discouraging the concentration of foreign pupils in the same classes. According to the latest education ministry figures, just over 911,000 of Italy's more than 7.7 million pupils, from nursery to secondary school, do not hold Italian citizenship. Of 52,392 schools nationwide, 4,664 already have more than 30 per cent non-Italian pupils, concentrated mostly in the north and centre of the country. Elly Schlein, leader of the opposition Partito Democratico (PD), called it "a shameful decree that tries to hide the government's inability to respond to the real problems of public education behind a new ideological banner," pointing instead to crumbling school buildings, textbook costs of over €500 a year for families and teachers' salaries among the lowest in Europe. She accused the government of launching a "witch-hunt at the expense of children." Nicola Fratoianni, leader of Alleanza Verdi e Sinistra (AVS) called the decree "an unworthy piece of propaganda on the backs of children," insisting there are no "different" children in Italian classrooms, only children who study, play and grow up together. School leaders and unions have also raised doubts. Antonello Giannelli, president of Italy's national association of school principals, said the issue was "well-founded and valid from an educational point of view, but difficult to translate into a workable solution," while teaching unions criticised the lack of consultation and additional resources behind the measure. Principals have separately warned the cap risks forcing families in areas with large migrant communities to send children to schools far from home. Commentators have linked the decree's timing to Meloni's efforts to shore up support on the right ahead of Italy's 2027 general election, amid competition from Roberto Vannacci's Futuro Nazionale party, which has campaigned for tougher rules on foreign pupils. The decree is not yet in force: it must still be signed by President Mattarella and published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale, after which parliament has 60 days to convert it into law or see it lapse.