The Italian government has approved a ban on the burqa and niqab in schools, effective immediately. The decree law also introduces a 30% limit on the proportion of pupils who speak little Italian 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." Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara framed the veil ban as a matter of gender equality, stating, "You must go to school with your face uncovered."
The 30% limit on pupils with limited Italian language skills will cover non-Italian citizens who have not been born in Italy or attended at least two years of nursery school in primary schools. In 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 are tasked with distributing these pupils more evenly among nearby schools, with exemptions and extra Italian teaching available where this is not possible.
Opposition parties have accused the government of political motivations ahead of next year's general election. The leader of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), Elly Schlein, called the plan propaganda and impossible to implement.