Schools: 10 per cent fewer Italian pupils in five years, 8.3 per cent more foreign pupils

Whilst the final text of the education decree (Decree-Law 170/2026, which was published on Wednesday evening in the Official Gazette following its signing by the Head of State) holds few surprises compared with the previews of recent days, the same cannot be said of the explanatory and technical reports accompanying it. These two documents help to provide a clearer picture of both the reasons that led the Government to take action regarding the presence of foreign pupils in classrooms, and the main effects we can expect from this emergency measure – comprising 15 articles – which has begun its journey through the Senate towards becoming law.

For example, on reading the explanatory report, we find that the number of pupils who are not Italian nationals has exceeded 911,578 (representing almost 12 per cent of the total student population), compared with 827,743 in 2019/20. Over the past five years, their numbers have risen by 83,835 – an increase of 10 per cent – whilst the number of pupils with Italian citizenship has fallen by over 612,000 (-8.3 per cent), standing at a total of 6.78 million. And it is in these figures that lies – as the Ministry of Education’s experts explain – ‘the need, which can no longer be postponed, to provide the education system with uniform regulations aimed at promoting a balanced distribution of pupils with non-Italian citizenship across classes and, where necessary, across educational institutions’. How? By introducing a 30 per cent cap in the first year of primary school, from the 2027/28 academic year onwards, for all pupils coming from abroad who were not born in Italia. There are two exceptions, which mean the cap does not apply: pupils entering primary school who have already completed two years of nursery school, or those attending lower or upper secondary school who have completed three years of schooling and have been promoted to the next year. These rules also apply to pupils arriving during the 2026/27 academic year, with headteachers who are unable to find alternative placements for surplus pupils being able to use the 3.4 million for extracurricular language enrichment activities (plus a further 14.1 million in 2028).

Further noteworthy information is provided in the technical report. Regarding another key provision of the Decree-Law – the possibility for schools to report to social services cases of educational emergency involving pupils whose parents do not speak Italian and who should be invited to attend an Italian language course at adult education centres (CPIA) – we find that there are approximately 36,400 people who may be affected. This estimate is arrived at by taking the number of approved applications for entry into Italia (around 130,000 in 2025) and comparing them with the number of accompanied minors (16,020 out of 57,853, equal to approximately 28 per cent). Taking foreign pupils into account as well, the total potential cohort affected by the new regulations in 2025/26 would have been 216,895 individuals, including the 180,495 foreign students who had already attended courses run by the 130 CPIA centres across the country.

After all, knowledge of Italian is not only essential for integration but also for academic success, given that whilst the drop-out rate has fallen to 6.2 per cent for Italian pupils, it rises to 16.9 per cent amongst first-generation foreign students and to 12.7 per cent amongst second-generation students. And that is not all. At the end of lower secondary education, the risk of early school leaving affects 22.5 per cent of first-generation foreign students, compared with 11.5 per cent of Italian students (Invalsi data).

The technical report also helps to clarify the details of the additional 21 million allocated for 2026 to ensure that textbooks are provided free of charge, either in full or in part, and the concurrent increase in the ISEE threshold from 30,000 to 40,000 euros. However, the legislation restricts the benefit solely to the first year of lower secondary school and the first and third years of upper secondary school (where pupils typically change textbooks more frequently), and no longer to all five years of upper secondary school. The result is a reduction in the number of beneficiaries, from the current 1,970,000 pupils to 1,269,000 pupils, a decrease of approximately 35 per cent (nearly 700,000 pupils and around 540,000 households).