Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni recently appeared on Rai1’s talk show “Cinque minuti” to defend her administration's controversial initiative to introduce a maximum cap on foreign students in classrooms. The proposed 30% threshold sparked fierce political debate, especially following remarks by President Sergio Mattarella emphasizing that "schools must overcome ghettos, not create them." While many interpreted Mattarella's words as a direct rebuke of the government's plan, Meloni firmly rejected this reading, arguing that the policy moves in the exact same direction as the President's vision: fostering more balanced classrooms.
Meloni clarified that the 30% limit applies specifically to children and young people who do not speak Italian, affecting just over a thousand classrooms nationwide. Data indicates that only one in thirteen classes exceeds this threshold, with the language barrier posing a challenge in barely 0.6% of cases. According to the Prime Minister, real segregation happens when a non-Italian-speaking child is placed in a classroom where the majority of peers share the same linguistic handicap. A more equitable distribution, she noted, prevents this isolation. To reinforce her point, Meloni recalled that when Sergio Mattarella served as Minister of Education, he issued circulars advising against the heavy concentration of foreign students in single classes out of basic common sense. During the same interview, Meloni also defended the proposed ban on the burqa and hijab in schools, framing it as a security issue. She pointed out that similar regulations prohibiting fully covered faces in schools, universities, and public offices already exist across half of Europe and even in several Muslim-majority nations.