Italy PM Giorgia Meloni plans school ban on burqas, niqabs and legal cap on foreign students per class

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has announced plans to ban face coverings such as burqas and niqabs in schools and introduce a legal limit on the number of foreign students allowed in each classroomSpeaking at Fenix a youth event organised by her Brothers of Italy party in Rome on Sunday Meloni said the government would soon present a measure to the Council of Ministers covering the proposed changes Italian news agency ANSA also reported that the measure would include an Italianlanguage requirement for parents of foreign students facing serious integration difficultiesGovernment plans cap on foreign studentsSo a measure is about to reach the Council of Ministers that legally introduces a limit on the number of foreign students per class A maximum number clearly And thats not all It also introduces an obligation for parents of foreign students with severe integration issues at school to learn Italian and introduces a ban on burqas and niqabs in schools she saidGiorgia Meloni said the proposed measures were intended to address integration in schools and ensure that people who come to Italy to build their future learn the Italian language understand the countrys culture and follow its rulesFor us anyone who comes to Italy and wants to build their future here must learn our language know our culture and respect our rules It is the only serious way to welcome people she addedThe government has not yet specified the maximum number of foreign students that would be permitted in an individual classroomBurqa niqab ban proposed in schoolsMeloni linked the proposed restriction on face coverings to conditions in schools and gender equalityBecause you go to school with an uncovered face and because in Italy no one in the name of a real or presumed tradition can decide that a young woman must hide herself Gender equality is nonnegotiablemdashnot on our streets and not in our schools she saidThe proposal announced by Meloni specifically concerns burqas and niqabs ANSAs report on her remarks also referred to a ban on burqas and niqabs in schoolsParents could face Italianlanguage requirementUnder the proposed measures parents of foreign students experiencing serious difficulties integrating into the Italian school system would be required to learn ItalianMeloni presented the language requirement as part of a broader approach to integration in educationThe government is yet to provide details on how the requirement would be implemented including which students or families would fall under the provision and how compliance would be assessedThe proposed cap on foreign students also raises questions about implementation The head of Italys national association of school principals Antonello Giannelli said such a limit could be difficult to apply because schools generally enrol children from their local areasItaly has large noncitizen student populationAccording to data cited in the supplied report from Fondazione ISMU around 930000 students without Italian citizenship are enrolled in schools across Italy accounting for about 116 per cent of the countrys total school populationThe proposed changes come as the Italian government continues to focus on integration and migration policy The question of how schools should manage classrooms with large numbers of students from migrant backgrounds has also prompted discussion among education officialsThe government has not yet announced the precise threshold that would form the proposed legal capMeloni also targets medical school admissionsAddressing higher education at the event Meloni also discussed changes to medical school admissions She said the government had scrapped the multiplechoice entrance test describing it as an unfair system that restricted opportunitiesAnd then universitymdashthat transition where so many young people choose what they want to be for the years to come Here too we inherited a system that claimed in words to guarantee opportunity for everyone but in practice left some behind We have unseated some of these mechanisms as well starting with one of the biggest symbols of the senseless injustices created by leftwing governments the multiplechoice entrance test for medical school We scrapped this infernal mechanism because if you want to play the lottery you buy a New Years ticketmdashyou dont enrol in university she statedMelonis announcements form part of a broader package of proposed changes to Italys education system covering integration language learning classroom composition and university admissions The measures will have to be formally presented before their detailed provisions and implementation mechanisms become clearWith inputs from ANI