Italian union contests 30% cap on foreign students in classrooms

The Cisl Scuola Emilia Centrale union is contesting a directive from Italian Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara to strictly enforce a 30% cap on non-Italian students per classroom. The policy aims to prevent concentrations of foreign students to promote inclusion, but critics argue it ignores the reality of modern demographics.

In Reggio Emilia, data shows a growing trend of non-Italian citizenship among students. For the 2024/25 school year, 21.1% of state classes were operating under derogations due to exceeding the threshold. Ciro Fiore, deputy general secretary of Cisl Scuola Emilia Centrale, warned that enforcing these percentages could force schools to redistribute enrollments or move families to different districts to meet quotas.

Furthermore, the union highlights that many students classified as foreign are actually born in Italy and speak Italian fluently. They argue that educational needs should be assessed based on actual requirements rather than passport status alone, suggesting that the policy may fail to reflect the evolution of Italian society.