Italy is preparing new measures that would ban burqas and niqabs in schools and place a limit on the number of foreign students allowed in individual classrooms.
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Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni announced the proposed measures on Sunday, September 20, 2026, while speaking at an event organised by Gioventù Nazionale, the youth wing of her Brothers of Italy party.
Meloni said the package would soon be presented to the Italian cabinet. The proposals would also require parents of pupils experiencing “serious difficulties integrating” into the Italian school system to learn the Italian language.
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The government has not yet announced the exact number of foreign students that would be permitted in each classroom. Current reporting puts non-Italian citizens at about 11.6% of students in Italy’s schools.
Speaking at the event, Meloni said:
“It is unacceptable that in an Italian classroom the children who end up feeling pushed into a corner are Italian children because they have become the minority. That cannot be allowed,”
She also criticised what she described as the use of the term integration when children struggle to participate fully in the Italian education system.
“Calling all this integration is yet another lie, a convenient lie for those who live off ideology, for those who preach to us from their living rooms and then send their own children to schools where this problem does not exist.”
Meloni’s announcement concerns proposed legislation and does not mean that the restrictions are already in force. The measures would need to go through the Italian legislative process before becoming law.
The proposal specifically mentions burqas and niqabs, which cover the face. It does not propose a general ban on the hijab, which leaves the face uncovered.
Italy’s proposal comes as other European countries have already introduced restrictions on face coverings. France and Belgium have bans covering face concealment in public places, while Austria has restrictions involving face coverings in schools.
The proposed measures are expected to generate further discussion in Italy over immigration, education, religious clothing and the integration of foreign-born families into the country’s school system.