Italy • • • 🌿 Progressive

9.1% of Italian classrooms exceed 30% cap on foreign students

9.1% of Italian classrooms exceed 30% cap on foreign students

33,222 Italian classrooms, 9.1% of 365,935, exceed the 30% cap on foreign students set by decree, according to Tuttoscuola's study.

--- The context --- Italy has a decree capping foreign students at 30% per classroom. A study by the specialist magazine Tuttoscuola measures how many classrooms comply and how many do not in the 24-25 school year. --- The facts --- There are 33,222 classrooms above 30% foreign students: 9.1% of the 365,935 classrooms in operation. Nationally, one in 11 classrooms exceeds the cap; in Emilia-Romagna and Lombardy, one in five. The schools hosting these high-density classrooms number 4,295, or 10.6% of the 40,678 active state schools. Of the 848,231 foreign students distributed across classrooms, 273,561 —nearly a third of the total— study in classrooms above the 30% cap. --- The positions --- Primary school concentrates the most: 16,836 classrooms, 13.8%, exceed 30%, followed by kindergarten with 5,023, 12.5%. Lower secondary drops to 9% and upper secondary to 3.5%. In Sardinia only one classroom in 193 exceeds the cap; in Puglia, one in 122; in Abruzzo, the highest incidence in the south, one in 27. Readings of the data split: some see diversity as a reason to invest in schools; others, as a sign the cap must be enforced. --- What remains unknown --- Emilia-Romagna, with nearly 20% of classrooms above 30% —one in five— tops the ranking, ahead of Lombardy, which holds the largest absolute number. In the north the minimum is one school in eight in Friuli; in the center, one in 15 in Lazio. --- Unanswered questions --- Will the decree actually reach the classrooms that breach it today? What resources will go to the 4,295 schools concentrating diversity? How will compliance be measured next school year? --- EPM analysis --- The picture shows a system where diversity is already the norm in many classrooms: a third of non-Italian students study in classes above the cap. The decree looks late and touches few classrooms. 📌 EPM Take: In EPM's view, the debate should not center on punishing non-compliance but on equipping high-diversity schools with the resources integration demands. Primary schools, with 13.8% of classrooms above the cap, need pedagogical support, not just rules. If the decree is applied without support, it risks punishing the schools doing the hardest work, especially in Emilia-Romagna and Lombardy, where one classroom in five already exceeds the 30% limit. A nation where one in eleven classrooms breaches a rule it cannot absorb needs investment first and enforcement second.
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