You cannot go to school with the burqa or niqab. And not even with a surgical mask, if you are not sick: from now on, anyone who violates this ban is punished with a fine ranging from 200 euros to 1,000 euros and if those who have their faces covered are minors, the fine applies to the parents. At the same time, if a child does not know Italian and this can jeopardize his integration with his classmates and his performance at school, and the family also does not know Italian, the family is obliged to attend a free Italian course: if he does not attend, he is fined between 200 and 1000 euros.
These are the two main innovations foreseen by the much discussed decree approved by the Council of Ministers. Together with the one that introduces the ceiling in classes: students who do not have Italian citizenship and who do not have a sufficient educational background must not be more than 30% of the total number of students in each class.
There are currently 34 thousand classes with a number of foreigners that exceeds 30% and studies certify that first generation foreign children have one year less of preparation in Italian. In primary school, the new criterion concerns pupils with non-Italian citizenship who were not born in Italy or who have not attended at least two years of nursery school. In secondary schools, however, the measure concerns students who have not successfully attended at least three years of school.
"Our objective is to put the Italian language at the center as a great tool for integration", clarified the Minister of Education, Giuseppe Valditara, who replied to journalists who pointed out to him that a draft of the measure had been circulating which envisaged taking children away from parents who persisted in not wanting to learn Italian, that that text "was spread by someone from the opposition".
The final text of the decree, however, seems to go in the direction of wanting to defuse the controversy and reassure the Quirinale, especially on the two main points. Furthermore, the new measures take into account situations in which it is not possible to respect the 30% ceiling and for this reason a series of exceptions are introduced: from the student's domicile to proven family needs. For schools that are unable to respect the 30% limit, a specific fund has been established, with an allocation of 17.5 million for the strengthening of the Italian language. For all this, the coordination role of the provincial school offices with respect to local schools is enhanced. "Knowing Italian means integrating, it has nothing to do with old circulars, which were only recommendations, they did not have binding force like the law, they were not binding, they were equivalent to a recommendation" and therefore were often not applied, Valditara told those who recalled the circulars also issued by the former head of state in his capacity, at the time, as Minister of Education.
The decree provides, among other measures, another 8 million over two years for the Permanent Fund to combat cyberbullying, another 21 million per year for interventions that guarantee the total or partial freeness of textbooks to less well-off families, raising the ISEE for beneficiaries from 30 to 40 thousand euros, 70 million for tutor teachers while the PEI, the personalized educational plan, adopted at the beginning of the study cycle, must be updated only if new elements arise.
The Flc Cgil is very critical. "It is yet another propaganda intervention, completely disconnected from the reality of our schools - says the general secretary Gianna Fracassi - the Constitution speaks clearly. Transforming access to education into an ideological flag to chase an easy electoral consensus is a very serious act, which undermines the founding values of our school community. And the decree ignores the two decisive issues for those who work in schools: salaries and precarious employment". For the DirigentiScuola principals' union "it is propagandistic and, ultimately, unachievable. And measures of this impact are not adopted once the school year has already begun", observes president Attilio Fratta.
