According to a new
policy by Italy’s majority government, no more than 30 percent of the students
in every elementary and middle school classroom in Italy would be foreigners.
The cap will likely take effect for the 2010-2011 academic year.
Discussing the
proposed policy, Education minister Mariastella Gelmini said the ceiling ‘would
avoid ghetto classes made up of foreign pupils’ who barely speak any Italian.
If the cap is a success, it will extend to secondary schools in the following
year.
Responding
to officials from the centre-left and from labor unions, who have called the
plan ‘racist’ and argue that it would only increase exclusion. Gelmini
responded, saying that ‘This move is not racism. Schools should be places of integration
and our educational institutes are ready to accept children from all cultures
and from all over the world.’
The
Italian schools currently enroll approximately 600,000 students whose families
come from over 190 different countries. Of these students, 35 percent were born
in Italy.
