A supportive, "adequately trained" teacher in classes where foreign-born students with significant language deficiencies equal or exceed 20%. The decree approved just over a month ago by the Council of Ministers is ready. "We intervene on the issue of school integration of foreign pupils: 30% of foreign children are dispersed, 22% lack proficiency in the Italian language. Schools will be obliged to ascertain Italian language skills for first-time immigrant students," Minister of Education and Merit Giuseppe Valditara had said. The first step will be to ascertain the language skills of foreign-born pupils, then courses will start. In classes where foreign-born students with significant deficiencies in language proficiency are 20% or more, a properly trained teacher will arrive from 2025. His or her task will be to support with reinforcement lessons the class work. In an average class of 25 pupils, for example, there must be at least 5 foreigners to have the language teacher. As early as September, meanwhile, schools will be able to organize additional extracurricular reinforcement courses thanks to ad hoc funds from the National Operational Program. For these students in fact, the minister had recalled, the school dropout rate stands at more than 30% compared to the dropout rate for Italian students of just 9.8%. The decree, dismissed by the CoM at the end of May, is expected to go into conversion in the coming weeks, before Parliament's summer recess, in order to be implemented by September.
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