&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "Italy to ban burqa and hijab in schools, limit foreign students per class: PM Giorgia Meloni")
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Sunday that Italy is preparing to ban the burqa and hijab in schools and introduce a legal limit on the number of foreign students in schools so that Italian children do not feel like a minority in the classroom.
“Italian children cannot feel like a minority in the classroom,” Meloni said at Fenix, a national youth festival organized by her Brothers of Italy (FdI) party’s youth group.
“It’s unthinkable that in an Italian classroom, Italian children feel cornered because they’ve become the minority. It can’t be done,” she added, while playing up her right-wing credentials at a youth event organised by her party.
Italy is one of the European countries most exposed to migrant arrivals because of its central Mediterranean location, making migration a major challenge for successive governments.
Meloni further said that parents of foreign students struggling to integrate into the school system would also be required to learn Italian.
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The integration of migrants, particularly those from Muslim-majority countries, remains a point of contention in Italian society and politics. Debates over religious symbols, cultural integration, citizenship rules and immigration policy frequently polarize public opinion.
“A measure will soon be presented to a Cabinet meeting to legally establish a maximum number of foreign students per class. It also requires parents of foreign students facing serious difficulties integrating into the school system to learn Italian and bans burqas and niqabs in schools,” Meloni said at the annual gathering of the youth wing of her Brothers of Italy party.
“If there is only one child in a class who doesn’t understand Italian, that child will likely be able to learn the language and integrate quickly with the help of classmates and teachers. However, if the number of children who don’t understand the language becomes large - or even the majority - that is no longer integration; it is neglect,” she added.
Meloni did not specify what the maximum number of foreign students per class would be.
Students who are not Italian citizens account for 11.6% of those enrolled in Italian schools, according to Fondazione ISMU, a research institution.
“You must go to school with your face uncovered, and in Italy no one, in the name of a real or supposed tradition, can decide that a young woman must hide herself,” Meloni said.
