In Italy's classes

Education minister wants fewer foreign pupils

A school in Italy (archive photo)

(Bild: AFP)

A maximum number of foreign pupils is currently being discussed in Italy. Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini and Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara have spoken out in favor of a maximum quota of 20 percent per school class. Currently, a maximum of 30 percent of pupils per class may have limited knowledge of Italian.

However, exceptions are possible. In the 2021/22 school year, 7.2 percent of all schools in Italy had more than 30 percent foreign pupils. At the same time, almost one in five schools (18%) had no foreign children and young people at all. There are major differences between the regions, with the proportion of foreigners being particularly high in the outskirts of large cities (often 50 percent or more). In most cases, these are children of the "second generation", i.e. pupils who were born in Italy but do not have citizenship because their parents come from other countries.

Italy's Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini

(Bild: AP)

Chaos due to different languages
"If you have lots of children in a class who speak different languages and don't know Italian, it's chaos. A 20 percent share of foreign children in a class is positive, but if there are only 20 percent Italians in the class, how are the teachers supposed to teach?" said Lega leader and Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini recently. Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara agreed with him. "The majority of pupils must be Italian," he said. Integration is only possible if foreign children learn the Italian language, history, literature, art and music well.

Opposition: "doggedness against children"
 Criticism came from the opposition parties. "The Minister of Education supports Salvini's madness, who wants to throw the children of foreign parents out of the classroom. One cannot understand the ruling right's doggedness against these children (...)", said Social Democrat party leader Elly Schlein. "We expel them from schools, and then where do we send them?" asked the mayor of Florence, Social Democrat Dario Nardella.

Around 877,000 girls and boys of a different nationality currently attend Italian schools.