Statistical analysis on migratory contexts in Italian educational services: the real impact of over 911 thousand pupils with non-Italian citizenship.
A few days ago, the council commission ofUnion of Lands of Arginethe entity that in Emilia Romagna aggregates the Municipalities of Campogalliano, Carpi, Novi di Modena And Solieramet to discuss «School and migratory contexts in educational services and in the first cycle of education».
In the red region, with the highest incidence of foreign citizens (12.9% compared to 9.2% nationally), the presence of students who do not speak Italian as their first language is increasing rapidly. The legislation provides for a limit of 30% of foreigners per class, but only in one class Carpi we went from 27 out of 144 classes (18.75%) exceeding the threshold in the 2018/2019 school year, to 51 classes out of 136 (37.50%) in the current year. A percentage of foreign students that is almost half of the entire school population.
The overcoming of regulatory limits and emergency data in the Northern regions
It is certainly not an isolated case. In 2022-23, theEmilia-Romagnawith 40,442 foreign students (23.2% of the regional total), had over half (4,721, 54.4%) of primary school classes exceeding 20%, and this meant that 29,815 (73.7%) of these students without Italian citizenship were in classes with a strong presence of students with limited knowledge of Italian.
Even the Lombardy it had 9,551 classes (47.9%) with a percentage of foreign students over 20%; the data on Liguria there were 1,205 classes (44.2%); The Veneto 4,053 (39.6%); there Tuscany 2,602 (37.1%); The Piedmont 3,081 (35.3%). This means adaptation and learning difficulties for foreigners, problems for Italian students who see the progress of their programs slow down and great anxiety for teachers who are unable to carry out their educational project.
The introduction of linguistic facilitators and the European funds of the PN School plan
The Ministry of Education and Meritsince last year, has been assigning support teachers, a sort of facilitators of our language, precisely in classes with at least 20% of foreign students “enrolling in the national education system for the first time”, or who in any case do not reach an A2 level of knowledge of Italian. Also for 2025-2026, there are 762 upgrade places that can be accessed with the competition class A-23dedicated to teaching the Italian language «for foreign language learners».
Also defined as Italian L2 to indicate the non-native language (Lm) or first language (L1), in fact it is Italian “as a second language”. Paradoxically, a language of secondary socialization and schooling, which is taught to foreigners in our schools to encourage their learning and integration. By providing another 762 teachers, which is not enough considering the high number of non-native Italian speakers in the classes, but which is theEuropean Union to impose on us.
The strengthening plan, established by decree, is in fact within the scope of the national program «PN School and skills 2021-2027», aimed at nursery schools, first and second cycle schools and provincial centers for adult education (CPIA) throughout the national territory, implementing EU regulation 2021/1060 for «A more social Europe».
Personalized training courses and economic resources allocated to institutes
The ministerial decree expressly speaks of “training courses” which must include “a personalized strengthening of the Italian language that takes into account the needs of each individual for effective and complete integration”, in primary and secondary state schools included in a specific list.
Each school, which has classes with more than 20% presence of foreign students, is allocated resources in proportion and “on the basis of the projects presented by the educational institutions based on the level of knowledge of the Italian language by the foreign students”, for a total of 12,817,500 euros. The recipients of the initiatives are female and foreign students of the identified schools, with the clarification that «the planned activities must strengthen basic skills and, in particular, the Italian language, pursue the personalization of learning, strengthening the inclinations and talents of the students, regardless of the starting conditions».
A lot of work, however with few resources and few “support” teachers.
The statistics of the Single Portal and the international comparison with the United Kingdom model
According to the Single portal for Italian school datain 2024/2025, students with non-Italian citizenship reached the figure of 911,578 units: almost 12% of the total presence in Italian and foreign classes. The previous year there were 910,984. And five years earlier, in 2019/2020, there were 827,743. In 2024/2025, almost 82 out of 100 non-Italian students will come from African, Asian or non-EU nations.
Also the United Kingdomwhere English is not the first language of 1.8 million pupils, or one in five, according to the 2024/25 school census, is grappling with the diktats of inclusion by teaching foreign children who lack the language skills. Schools received a record £539 million this year to cater for pupils learning ‘English as an additional language (Eal)’ and are expected to reach £572 million next school year, the Daily Mail. However, discontent is spreading, with more interventions being requested also for non-foreign students who belong to disadvantaged social classes.
