Italy approves school face-veil ban and cap on some non-Italian pupils

Italy’s government has approved a school ban on the burqa and niqab alongside a 30% cap affecting certain pupils without Italian citizenship in entry-year classes, according to the BBC. The measures would restrict face coverings and change how some pupils are distributed among nearby schools. [1]

The veil ban would not apply to the hijab, which leaves the face visible. The report does not specify penalties or enforcement arrangements. [1]

How the class cap would work

The reported 30% limit would apply to individual classes in the first year of primary, lower-secondary and upper-secondary education. It is not described as a blanket cap on all pupils without Italian citizenship in every school year. [1]

For primary schools, the BBC says it would cover non-Italian citizens who were not born in Italy or had not attended at least two years of nursery school. At secondary level, it would cover non-Italian citizens who had not successfully completed at least three years in Italy’s school system. [1]

The precise eligibility rules remain uncertain. The BBC’s initial description refers broadly to citizenship or limited Italian, while its detailed account combines citizenship with birthplace or schooling history. The approved legal text was not supplied for verification. [1]

Local school offices would seek to distribute pupils with limited Italian more evenly among nearby schools. Where that was not possible, exemptions and additional Italian teaching would apply. [1]

A similar numerical threshold has existed in guidance: the BBC reports that a 2010 ministerial notice set a 30% limit, as a general rule, for pupils without Italian citizenship. It describes the new decree as putting a limit into law, but does not establish that the two sets of rules are identical. [1]

Government case and criticism

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni presented the measures as supporting integration. Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara described the cap as linguistic rather than citizenship-based, although citizenship features explicitly in the reported criteria. He also framed the face-covering ban as a matter of gender equality. [1]

Democratic Party leader Elly Schlein criticised the plan as propaganda and said it would be impossible to implement. Those are political assessments; the supplied report does not establish the measures’ likely effects or feasibility. [1]