Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has unveiled new regulations for schools that prohibit face coverings such as burqas and niqabs in classrooms and set a limit on the number of foreign students per class.

The initiative also requires parents of foreign students to learn Italian, in what the government describes as a push for better integration.

What the rules say

Under the new regulations, face-covering garments will be banned inside classrooms, a move the government frames as essential for identification, communication and the smooth functioning of school life.

Classes will also face a cap on foreign enrolment, aimed at ensuring a balanced mix of students and preventing the formation of segregated classroom environments. Schools exceeding the threshold will have to redistribute admissions.

The requirement for parents of foreign pupils to learn Italian goes further than most European school policies, placing the integration burden explicitly on families as well as children.

Reaction and debate

Supporters of the measures argue they will strengthen social cohesion and help immigrant children integrate faster into Italian society. The government has presented the package as common-sense reform rather than ideology.

The move is nonetheless expected to draw sharp debate, both within Italy and across Europe, where questions of religious dress, immigration and national identity remain deeply contested. France’s earlier ban on full-face veils in public spaces offers a precedent for the kind of legal and political battles such measures can trigger.

Education unions, civil liberties groups and opposition parties are likely to scrutinise the fine print, from how the classroom caps are enforced to whether the parental language requirement can be fairly applied.

For Meloni’s government, the school regulations fit a broader agenda of asserting national identity in public institutions, and they are unlikely to be the last such initiative.

Part of a broader agenda

Meloni, who has led Italy’s government since 2022 at the head of the Brothers of Italy party, has consistently placed national identity and integration at the centre of her domestic agenda. Education policy has become one of the main arenas for that push.