Foreign students in classrooms: there are 911,000 of them, with a 30 per cent cap set to be introduced by law

Politicians are once again discussing foreign students, and yesterday, 20 September, the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, brought the issue back to the fore by announcing an ‘imminent Council of Ministers’ meeting’ featuring a three-pronged tightening of regulations: a cap on the number of foreign pupils per class; a requirement for the parents of pupils with serious difficulties integrating into school to learn Italian; and a ban on the burqa and niqab in schools.

These are complex and sensitive issues. Let us begin by setting the context. According to the MIM database, updated on 31 August 2025, there are 911,578 students with non-Italian citizenship in our schools, representing roughly 12 per cent of the total student population (7.5 million). The largest concentration of foreign pupils is in the north-western regions, where the Ministry has recorded 349,150 pupils, accounting for 38.3 per cent of the total. Next comes the North-East, with 232,729, equivalent to just over one in four foreign pupils (25.5 per cent). Furthermore, according to the latest ISMU report, non-Italian students face greater difficulties partly because they find themselves in disadvantaged circumstances: the risk of early school leaving is higher (standing at 22.5 per cent compared with 11.6 per cent for Italians). Academic results are also affected: Invalsi data showed that foreign pupils in the third year of lower secondary school scored 22.6 points lower in Italian and 13.5 points lower in mathematics; as they progress through their studies, the gap in maths closes whilst the gap in Italian remains; meanwhile, in English tests, non-Italian pupils achieve better results.

In short, it is a sensitive issue. In Italia, there has long been a cap on the number of foreign pupils per class. According to a circular issued in January 2010 by the Ministry of Education, headed at the time by Mariastella Gelmini, the number of foreign pupils with limited knowledge of Italian must not exceed 30 per cent of the total number of pupils enrolled in each class and in each school, although exceptions may apply.

In short, it is a sort of recommendation. And so whilst some have complied with it, others have not managed to do so, partly because of the large number of foreign nationals in the area.

After all, both then and now, the fundamental difficulty in adhering to ‘ceilings’ was summarised very clearly by the head of headteachers, Antonello Giannelli: ‘Setting a cap on the number of foreign pupils in classes is complicated because families choose their local school and cannot be turned away if there is a high concentration of immigrants in that area.’ This principle of proximity, experts in the field explain, could, if not respected, undermine the right to education, which is a constitutional principle. In short, Giannelli added: “From an educational point of view, the issue is well-founded and understandable, but it is difficult to find a practical solution.”