Meloni proposes banning hijabs in schools and capping the number of foreign pupils

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has announced an upcoming bill that would set a maximum share of foreign pupils allowed in a single school class, while also banning burqas and niqabs in educational institutions. She made the announcement on Sunday at the annual Atreju youth festival, organised by the youth wing of her ruling Brothers of Italy party, Reuters reports.

"Italian children should not feel like a minority in their own classroom," Meloni said. According to her, when the number of children who don't understand the language of instruction becomes too high, or they end up in the majority, this is no longer integration — it amounts to negligence on the part of the state.

What the bill proposes

According to the prime minister, the document will be brought before the cabinet shortly. Besides capping the number of foreign students per class, it would require parents of foreign children struggling significantly to integrate into the school system to study Italian. Meloni did not specify an exact figure for the maximum allowable share of foreign pupils in a class.

The prime minister was also blunt on the subject of dress codes: "You come to school with an open face, and in Italy no one can decide, in the name of a real or supposed tradition, that a young woman must cover her face."

Migration as a flashpoint issue

Because of its position in the central Mediterranean, Italy remains one of the European countries most exposed to migrant inflows, making migration a perennially contentious topic in public debate.

According to the Fondazione ISMU research institute, around 930,000 pupils without Italian citizenship attend Italian schools, making up nearly 11.6% of all students. The institute notes, however, that the number of minor foreign nationals in the country has fallen by 4.5% over the past decade.

This is not the first time Meloni's government has moved to ban face-covering garments: back in 2025, her party already announced plans to prohibit burqas and niqabs in all public places across the country, framing the move as a response to "Islamic separatism." The corresponding bill is still under review in the lower house of the Italian parliament.

Source: novinky.cz