Respect for teachers and local culture must be brought back into the classroom, Deputy Premier and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini said on Friday.
"Solidarity with the headmaster of the French high schoolMaurice Ravel," wrote Salvini on X, formerly Twitter, referring to the principal who resigned earlier this week after receiving death threats in connection with his request for a student to remove her hijab, or Islamic veil.
"Forget do-goodery, respect for teachers and our culture must be brought back into the classroom," added the leader of the right-wing League.
Salvini's post came the day after Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara, also of the League, said the government will take measures to try to ensure that the majority of Italian school classes are made up of Italian pupils and that foreign students assimilate along with their parents by learning Italian language and culture, and not living in separate communities.
"If one agrees that foreigners should assimilate into thefundamental values enshrined in the Constitution, this willhappen more easily if the majority in the classes are Italians,if they study Italian in an enhanced manner where they do notalready know it well, if Italian history, literature , art, and music are taught in depth in the schools, if their parents are also involved in learning the Italian language and culture, and if they do not live in separate communities," he said.
Salvini on Wednesday himself proposed a 20% cap on the number of foreign pupils in Italian schools, prompting Florence Mayor Diego Nardella of the opposition centre-left Democratic Party (PD) to say "when we expel them, where are we going to put them? Salvini ignores the real Italy".
The League responded Thursday by calling Nardella "a radicalchic who doesn't know the problems in Italian schools".
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