Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni announced on 20 September 2026 the statutory limit of abroad students in classes, the ban on burqa and nikab in schools and the mandatory Italian for any of their parents. The task is due to go to the Council of Ministers soon. Rome makes it clear: integration requires a common language, an uncovered face and state-designated rules.
Three Principles Announced in Rome
Giorgia Meloni presented the assumptions on 20 September during Fenix, a Roman youth festival of the Italian Brothers party. The package is intended to cover the maximum number of students without Italian citizenship in 1 class, the ban on burqa and nikab in schools, and the work for parents to teach Italian to children with serious difficulties with school integration.
By Associated Press Relations The Prime Minister justified the task with a simple principle: a man who wants to build a future in Italy should learn the language, culture and local rules. This approach rejects the convenient fiction that housing in the country alone is adequate for real integration. The state has the right to anticipate effort from the visitor, and at the same time it should make conditions for learning.
ANSAthat the government is working on bringing government to the Council of Ministers gathering planned for September 24. However, the order of business has not yet been established. The task is to prepare the Ministry of Education, and Parliament's approval will be needed after the government's decision. For present it is an announcement, not a law.
Legal limit for abroad students
Meloni did not give a circumstantial value of the planned limit. In Italy there is already a guideline from 2010, according to which the participation of students without Italian citizenship in the schoolroom should not in rule exceed 30%. Guidelines of the Italian Ministry of Education let this threshold to be raised erstwhile students are well acquainted with Italian and its simplification with a large number of children who are only starting to learn the language.
The plan of the government aims to transfer this regulation to the level of the bill. The point is clear: the school is to combine children in a community of language and culture, not passively perpetuate parallel environments. However, the percent alone will not solve the problem. There will be reasonable rules for the deployment of pupils, additional Italian learning and real teacher support. Without this, even the right direction can break into the situation of neighborhoods in which abroad children make up a large part of the population.
The magnitude of the phenomenon is not marginal. Data of the Italian Ministry of Education indicated the expected 864 425 students without Italian citizenship in state schools in the 2024/2025 school year. This justifies a policy based on planning, alternatively of responding only erstwhile integration stops working.
Face and Common Language Revealed
The ban is on burqa, which obscures the body and face, and nikab, leaving visible eyes. Meloni did not replace the hijab, or scarf without covering her face. It's an crucial distinction. The school requires direct communication, recognition of the student and clear safety rules. It is not a place where spiritual customs can automatically invalidate the norms of the state.
Equally crucial is the work to learn Italian for any parents. A kid does not integrate for only a fewer hours in a classroom. If the home remains completely cut off linguistically from the school, it is harder to talk about progress, responsibilities and problems. The common language gives the household autonomy and the chance to enforce the same rules towards all.
Poland should carefully observe the Italian project. The Meloni government maintains stableness through a clear right-wing mandate, but the content of the law and its implementation will find the value of this announcement. In our country too, migration policy must anticipate problems in schools. Polish language, children's safety and the right of hosts to specify rules are not a manifestation of hostility towards foreigners. They are a condition for fair integration.
This is especially crucial erstwhile a dispute over migration is brought into emotional labels. Italian experience with migration policy show that the deficiency of tough rules rapidly shifts costs to average citizens and public institutions. The school, which transmits the language and national culture, is at stake for Poles, alternatively of withdrawing from this task under the force of sick understood correctness.
Source: WP News, Associated Press, ANSA, Ministry of Education and Merit of the Italian Republic
Source: WP News
