Italy's Cabinet Backs School Curbs, and the Marche Counts Its Pupils

Italy's ministers have agreed a package that would ban the burqa and niqab in schools and place a ceiling on the number of non-Italian pupils in any one classroom, the BBC reported on Thursday. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni described the measures as "common-sense tools that do not divide but really help to integrate".

The New York Times framed the same decision differently, reporting that Meloni said the goal was to better integrate children who do not speak Italian, while critics accused her of trying to appease anti-immigrant sentiment. The Local Italy, which covers Italy for an English-speaking readership, asked this week what is really driving the clampdown, noting the pledge was made over the weekend before the cabinet agreed it.

Two elements sit in the same package: a dress prohibition drawn along religious lines and a numerical limit on foreign pupils per class. The second is the one that reaches ordinary schools, and it reaches them as a quota.