ROME: Italy is preparing to ban burgas and nigabs in schools and to cap the number of foreign students per class, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Sunday as she played up her right-wing credentials at a youth event organised by her party.
Italy is a frontline country for migration, and integration is a major campaign issue ahead of a generalelectionnextyear.
‘A measure will soon be presented to a cabinet meeting to legally establish a maximum number of foreign students per class,’ Meloni told a gathering of the youth wing of her Brothers of Italy (FdI) party.
‘It also requires parents of foreign students facing serious difficulties integrating into the schoolsystem to learn Italian, and bans burqas and nigabs in schools,’ she said.
A crackdown on the use of burgasin schools was called for in July by the National Future (FN) party.
The FN, which is not part of the governing coalition, is further to the right than Meloni’s and has emerged as a major challenger, rising sharply in the polls since launching in February.
While there is no law in Italy that expressly bans burgas, either in schools or in public places, a 1975 law prohibits the use of helmets or garments that make identification difficult without a justified reason.
In 2008, Italy’s highest administrative court clarified that full-face veils may be worn for religious or cultural reasons provided that the face is revealed when identity verification is required.
The anti-immigrant League party, which is part of Meloni’s coalition, submitted a bill to the Senateearlier this year that would ban helmets or garments except for in certain circumstances, such as sporting events or places of worship.
The limit on the number of foreign students per class already exists under Italian law, and Meloni did not spell out how that would change. Foreign students account for just under 12pc of those enrolled in Italian schools, according to the National Statistics Institute (ISTAT).
Since 2010 the number of foreign students has been limited to 30 per cent of a class and of a school’s enrolment.The limit can be raised in cases involving foreign students with adequate language skills, such as foreign students born in Italy, or lowered when foreign students have a poor command of Italian.
-Agencies