Italy Bans Burqa and Niqab in Schools and Caps Foreign Pupils at 30% Under New Education Decree
Italy just turned a long-simmering political debate into actual policy. On September 24, Giorgia Meloni’s government pushed through a new school decree that does two big things: it bans face-covering garments like the burqa and niqab in schools, and it sets limits on how many foreign-born students can be grouped into a single first-year class.
Officials are framing this as an integration measure, something meant to boost Italian-language learning and stop schools from splitting along social or cultural lines, rather than a crackdown for its own sake.
What’s actually banned
Students won’t be allowed to take part in school activities inside or outside the classroom with their faces covered to the point where they can’t be identified. The decree names the burqa and niqab specifically. Break the rule, and you’re looking at fines somewhere between €200 and €1,000. If the student is a minor, that fine falls on the parents or guardians instead. It’s worth being precise here: this isn’t a ban on Islamic headscarves in general. Meloni has been clear that the target is facial concealment, specifically she’s argued that no girl should feel forced to hide her face at school in the name of tradition. A hijab that leaves the face visible isn’t touched by this rule.
The 30% classroom cap and why it’s more complicated than it sounds
The second piece is the more logistically tricky one. Starting with the 2027–28 school year, Italy wants schools to cap the share of certain foreign-born students in new first-year classes at 30% across primary, middle, and high school.
But the rule isn’t as blunt as “no more than 30% foreign kids per class.” The actual criteria are narrower:
- In primary school, it applies to kids who aren’t Italian citizens, weren’t born in Italy, and didn’t attend at least two years of preschool there.
- In middle and high school, it applies to non-Italian citizens who haven’t been in Italy’s school system for at least three years.
So a foreign-born student who’s been through the Italian system for years wouldn’t count toward that cap the same way a recent arrival would.
Why language keeps coming up
Language is really the backbone of the government’s justification. Meloni’s argument goes like this: a handful of students still learning Italian can be absorbed just fine into a normal classroom, but once they make up a large chunk of the class, integration gets genuinely harder for everyone.
To back that up, the decree also leans on extra Italian-language support and in cases where a family’s kids are struggling to integrate, they could be required to attend language courses, with financial penalties on the table if they skip out.
Why this matters outside Italy
Italy sits at the front line of Mediterranean migration into Europe, so anything it does around immigration, religious symbols, or integration tends to ripple outward into the broader EU conversation. Supporters say spreading students out more evenly and doubling down on language support will genuinely help schools function better. Critics aren’t convinced some education unions and school leaders, per ANSA, have called the whole thing more of a political statement than a real fix for what’s actually wrong in Italian classrooms. Either way, it plugs into a debate playing out across Europe: how do you balance religious and cultural freedom against a push for shared public norms, especially in schools that are getting more diverse every year?
What happens now
The Council of Ministers has signed off, but the fine print on how it’s implemented, how schools classify and sort students still needs to be worked out. That classroom-composition rule in particular will live or die based on how schools interpret and apply it in practice. The face-covering ban is more immediate and more concrete: show up with your face covered for a school activity, and a fine could follow.
FAQ
Did Italy ban headscarves entirely?
No, just face coverings that block identification, like the burqa and niqab.
Does the 30% rule hit every foreign student?
No, it’s narrower tied to citizenship, birthplace, and how long the student’s been in Italian schools.
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