Italy leader Giulia Meloni announces plans to limit foreign student numbers, ban face coverings in schools

September 21, 2026 / 8:58 AM EDT / CBS News

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni announced plans on Sunday to introduce a legal limit on the number of foreign students allowed in Italian classrooms, as well as a ban on face-covering garments, including the Islamic burqa and niqab, in schools.

Meloni made the announcement during a speech at Fenix, an event organized by Gioventù Nazionale, the youth wing of her conservative Brothers of Italy party.

"If in a classroom there is only one child who doesn't understand Italian, it is possible that that child will manage, with the help of his peers and teachers, to learn the language and integrate fast. But if these children are many, or even the majority, that's not integration anymore, that's abandonment," Meloni said.

She said Italy's government would introduce legislation to legally limit the number of foreign students in individual classrooms to about 30%, adding: "There's no way that in an Italian classroom, the ones who feel marginalized are Italian children because they have become a minority."

According to the ISMU ETS Foundation, an immigration-focused think tank, citing data from the Italian Ministry of Education, students with non-Italian citizenship currently account for about 11.6%…

Original source: https://www.cbsnews.com/entertainment/