Italy Approves Ban on Full-Face Veils in Schools, Caps Non-Italian Students

The Italian government has approved measures to ban the burqa and niqab in schools and to cap the number of students in a class who speak limited Italian. The decree-law, which can take effect immediately but requires parliamentary ratification within 60 days, also mandates a 30% limit on pupils without Italian citizenship or poor knowledge of the Italian language in the first year of primary, middle, and high school.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni described the measures as "common-sense tools that do not divide but really help to integrate." She stated that students must attend school with their faces uncovered and that no one should decide a young woman must hide herself in the name of tradition. The ban specifically applies to the burqa, a one-piece veil covering the face and body, and the niqab, a face veil that leaves the eyes visible, but not the hijab, which leaves the face uncovered.

Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara framed the veil ban as a matter of gender equality, while the student cap is presented as purely linguistic. "You must go to school with your face uncovered," Meloni said. The minister also clarified that the limit is "purely linguistic" rather than based on citizenship.

Non-Italian citizens constitute 11.6% of Italy's student population, according to the research institution Fondazione ISMU. The 30% cap will be applied differently across educational stages. In primary schools, it will affect non-Italian citizens who were not born in Italy or have not attended at least two years of nursery school. For lower and upper secondary schools, it applies to pupils without Italian citizenship who have not completed at least three years in the Italian school system.

Local school offices will be tasked with distributing students with limited Italian language skills more evenly among nearby schools. Exemptions will be available where this is not possible, with additional Italian language teaching provided. The education minister explained the aim is to avoid "ghetto classes." The decree also proposes that schools report to social services cases where parental responsibility hinders a child's integration due to persistent language barriers, while offering free Italian courses.

This new decree formalizes a limit previously set as a guideline in a 2010 ministerial notice under then-Education Minister Mariastella Gelmini, which also set a 30% limit on pupils without Italian citizenship "as a rule."

Political opposition has criticized the plan, with some accusing the government of pandering to hard-right political factions ahead of upcoming elections. The leader of the center-left Democratic Party, Elly Schlein, called the plan propaganda and unworkable. Anna Ascani, a PD deputy, also accused the government of using propaganda at the expense of schoolchildren. Education Minister Valditara rejected these claims, stating, "We are not chasing Vannacci; if anything, he is chasing us."