A school in Veneto has only 10 Italians among 118 students and becomes the target of controversy.

The “Giulio Cesare” middle school, in Mestre, in the Venice regionAccording to the newspaper Il Gazzettino, the school will have only ten "Italian-speaking" students among the 118 enrolled in the first grades next school year. Four classes will be made up solely of students of immigrant origin, and one of them will exclusively bring together teenagers from Bangladeshi families.

In response to renewed criticism regarding class composition, director Michela Manente defended the institute. "Diversity is our strong point," she told the newspaper.

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What the numbers say

The school emphasizes that, among the 118 students in the new classes, 30 have Italian citizenship, including the ten considered "Italian speakers." According to the institute, most of the students of immigrant origin come from the network's own early childhood and elementary education units, which ensures continuity between educational stages.

The teachers released a document reinforcing their commitment to integration and challenging the label applied to the students. "It is unfair to continue calling 'foreigners' boys who were born and raised in our city," the text states.

The document lists multicultural projects and free after-school activities in the areas of music, sports, language, and science. The school is open from 8:00 AM to 7:00 PM, Monday to Friday, and until 2:30 PM on Saturdays.

Unique class of Bengali origin

When questioned by Il Gazzettino about the formation of a class composed solely of students of Bangladeshi origin, Professor Lucia De Polo, the unit coordinator, acknowledged the imbalance. "In forming the classes, we try to balance the various groups, but these are the numbers," she said.

The controversy gained momentum after the deputy mayor of Venice, Francesca Zaccariotto (from the Lega party)A newspaper article about the increase in enrollments of children of immigrant origin in the city went viral on social media. The principal responded to the publication. "These students are Italian. They studied in our schools. Most of them were born in Italy," she countered. (With information from Il Gazzettino)