I would like to start by saying that Giorgia Meloni’s government deserves the utmost respect. His record duration, first in the rankings of republican Italy for a few days, is not a casual detail. But what appears on the horizon, between now and the next political elections, is a future full of surprises: from car tax (which we talked about here) to news about schools.

Whoever wears the burqa to school, raise your hand: but knives can enter

It is right that Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni adopts the proposal of the Minister of Education, Giuseppe Valditara, to ban the burqa at school. However, a new rule is not needed. Article 5 of the Reale law already exists, number 152 of 1975: “The use of protective helmets, or any other means capable of making it difficult to recognize a person, in a public place or place open to the public, without justified reason is prohibited.”

The justified reason is the one that allows surgeons in the operating room of a public hospital not to be arrested, or all Italians to go outdoors during a pandemic. The problem is that the burqa is a particular garment (photo above), imposed more or less violently on women only in some areas of the world. But it does not concern girls and boys who go to school in Italy. In recent years I have been a guest in many Italian classes: never, not even in lower and upper schools with a high Muslim presence, have I encountered students wearing burqas. Never.

Making a special law is equivalent in Italy to prohibiting bringing a kangaroo or a giraffe or a crocodile to class. Another thing is the veil on the hair. For the wearer it has a meaning. For those of us who don’t wear it, it’s a respectable piece of clothing. Like a scarf, a cap, Maradona’s t-shirt, the baptismal chain, or the Youth Front pin. A campaign that isolates and severely punishes those who instigate and promote armed attacks against teachers on social media would certainly be more urgent, as the news tells us. Before firearms take the place of blades.

Differential classes exist: no one has ever protested

Giorgia Meloni relaunched Minister Valditara’s proposal to establish by law a ceiling of 30% of pupils with non-Italian and non-EU backgrounds. It would be a common sense rule against differential classes: that is, classrooms that welcome an exclusive or almost exclusive presence of students with learning deficits, such as lack of knowledge of the Italian language.

Italian law prohibits them. But in fact they have existed for years, in the total tolerance of even progressive leaders: in all the neighborhoods and municipalities with a high migratory density, in fact, Italian parents have transferred their children to other schools considered (often wrongly) more reliable. And in the starting classes the children of immigrants remained, bearers of different geographies and languages. While the number of teachers has never been adequate to meet needs. Like at the Gabelli comprehensive institute in Turin: 1,200 students, all minors, 80% born to foreign parents and only one L2 language facilitator of Italian.

Will foreign children from Centocelle have to go to school in Parioli?

The 2025 data tell us that in Italy foreign students – or those born in Italy to foreign parents – are around 930 thousand, 11.6 percent of the total school population, around 8 million. We are therefore well below the 30% indicated by the government. However, 65 percent of students with a migrant background are concentrated in the North, where the presence of immigrant families in working-class neighborhoods has favored the creation of de facto differential schools. How can we dilute this presence without trauma in order to respect the ideal of two Italian children out of three for each class, the 70% indicated by Meloni and Valditara?

The circular from the then minister Mariastella Gelmini, which in 2010 provided for the same percentage for each class, remained on paper due to its impracticability. How then will the managers convince foreign or second generation families from Centocelle in Rome to enroll their children in Parioli 17 kilometers away, or in other neighborhoods with a greater Italian residence? What will be the consequences on travel times, companions, parents’ work shifts? Or how can we prevent Italian families from the multi-ethnic suburbs of Brescia from transferring their children to the monocultural schools in the centre? And why, to guarantee that 30% in class, should only the children of foreigners be moved and not the children of Italians? The further difficulty is given by the fact that we are talking about minors.

The inaction of private schools: especially Catholic ones

Immigrant concentrations are dictated by external factors such as the cost of rent and the availability of work. Not even a passport can help school leaders train new classes: 44 percent have a European Union passport and should not be considered “foreign”. A valid evaluation parameter should be the ability to understand and speak the Italian language: but at this point the provision should also be extended to the thousands of Italian students who, bombarded by social media, smartphones and tablets, no longer know how to write correctly and do not understand the texts they read.

The topic is fundamental, so as not to build further marginalization. But, from the Gelmini circular onwards, the absence of any contribution from private schools, especially the Catholic one inspired by the Gospel, should also be noted: if they have any foreigners in the class – enrolled at a high cost – it is certainly the son of an ambassador or a managing director.

The proposal: 30% more teachers in schools with foreign children

Since no “white” family from Parioli or Milan Monforte will enroll their children in Centocelle or Gratosoglio to favor the government percentage, there would be a solution within reach. The demographic collapse in Italy is freeing up thousands of teachers, who risk unemployment. And it is easier for a teacher to travel a few kilometers than for a minor student. Then give 30 percent more teachers to schools that host high percentages of immigrant children. Because those are precisely the schools – in the dramatic collapse of Italian births – that today are building the new Italy by teaching and raising new citizens, future workers, taxpayers, voters. The goal is worth the expense, which would not require additional hiring.

Who will inhabit Italy after us – by Fabrizio Gatti

With more teachers there will also be more Italian courses for those who need them. And certainly better results for everyone, including Italy, to the point of convincing Italian children to go back. Successful public schools already exist. An example of this is the Francesco Cappelli comprehensive institute in the former Trotter park in Milan. A very high percentage of foreigners, many newly arrived. They have activated afternoon L2 courses for students and families with a very rich offer and they manage everything well. The same for disabled students.

The former Trotter park: the school that operates without a “limited number”

The solution should not be sought in the number of “foreign” children in the classroom, but in the presence of an adequate number of teachers for the challenge. “Let the ministry begin to guarantee the appointment of support teachers in an adequate number and with training, in the classroom from the first day of school and not after months – observes a teacher -. Then we will see if inclusion will still be a problem”. It’s a real shame that Giorgia Meloni is only talking about this now, close to the elections and her right-wing rival Roberto Vannacci. Had he proposed it at the beginning of the legislature, he could have left a greater mark.

Read Fabrizio Gatti’s other editorials and investigations