Schools, double front: decree on foreign students and burqa, the budget law cuts 14,808 jobs

The government approved a decree law on education in the Council of Ministers introducing two distinct measures: a cap on the number of foreign students allowed in each class and a ban on wearing burqas and niqabs inside school buildings. This is reported by Tgcom24, which cites the press conference held by the government at the end of the meeting; at the moment this is the only available source on the measure, with no independent confirmation.

The decree does not specify, as reported by the source, the numerical threshold of the cap nor the implementation methods for the two measures in schools. It remains to be seen in the coming days how the measure will be translated into operational rules for individual schools.

On the budget law front, the text of the 2027 bill confirms meanwhile a staff reduction that directly affects school personnel. According to L’Indipendente, which cites the text of the bill approved by the Council of Ministers, Article 66, paragraph 5, provides for 6,974 fewer positions among teachers and administrative, technical and auxiliary staff.

Adding this reduction to the cuts already made under the 2025 budget law, the total number of positions eliminated rises to 14,808 between the 2025/26 and 2027/28 school years. Specifically, from 2027/28 there would be 4,925 fewer positions in the autonomy staffing of teachers and another 2,049 fewer positions among Ata staff, while the text provides for an increase of 2,000 positions in the support area.

This news also comes, at the moment, from a single source, with no independent confirmation available.

A comparison with another European country offers a benchmark on school policy choices: in France the government announced on October 8 the deployment of about 3,000 already available substitute teachers, a direct response to student protests linked to the shortage of teachers in French schools.

The two matters — the decree on foreign students and religious clothing on one hand, the staff cuts on the other — touch on different aspects of Italian school policy and follow separate regulatory tracks: the first a standalone decree law, the second an article of the budget law. What remains to be followed is the parliamentary process of the budget law, with the issue of staff cuts still open, and the first reactions from the school world to the new decree.