There is currently a debate going on in Italy about a maximum number of foreign students. Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini and Minister of Education Giuseppe Valditara have spoken out in favor of a maximum quota of 20 percent per school class. Currently, a maximum of 30 percent of students 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 students. At the same time, almost one in five schools (18 percent) had no foreign children or young people at all. There are major differences between the regions; The share of immigrants is especially high in the suburbs of large cities (often 50 percent or more). Most of them are ‘second generation’ children, i.e. students who were born in Italy but do not have citizenship because their parents come from other countries.
Chaos due to different languages
“If you have a lot of children in a class who speak different languages and don’t know Italian, it is chaos. A share of 20 percent foreign children in a class is positive, but if there are only 20 percent Italians in the class, how are the teaching staff supposed to teach?” said Lega leader and Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini recently. Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara agreed. “The majority of students should be Italian,” he said. Integration is only possible if foreign children learn the Italian language, history, literature, art and music well.
Opposition: “stubbornness towards children”
Criticism came from the opposition parties. “The Minister of Education supports the madness of Salvini, who wants to throw the children of foreign parents out of class. “You cannot understand the persistence of the ruling right against these children (…),” said Social Democratic party leader Elly Schlein. “We send them out of schools, and then where do we send them?” asked the mayor of Florence, social democrat Dario Nardella.
Currently, approximately 877,000 girls and boys of other nationalities attend Italian schools.
Source: Krone
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