Task force to coordinate
Schools expect hundreds of thousands of refugee children
03/10/2022, 11:11 am
More than 80,000 people have already fled from Ukraine to Germany. The Ministers of Education are preparing for the fact that the number of children who have fled will increase many times over. Separate classes are planned. Ukrainian educators could help.
The federal states are preparing for hundreds of thousands of refugee children and young people from Ukraine. The refugee children should be taught quickly at German schools and have contact with other children, said the chairwoman of the Conference of Ministers of Education (KMK), Schleswig-Holstein’s Minister of Education, Karin Prien, on ZDF. According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, more than 80,000 people have fled to Germany from Ukraine since the beginning of the war two weeks ago.
“There will certainly be many hundreds of thousands of children coming to us,” said Prien. No one can currently predict how many people will be forced to flee in total. “We are preparing for the fact that we have to overcome a major challenge here.” At a meeting in Lübeck, the Ministers of Education want to discuss the situation from noon.
Prien said: “Of course we will also set up separate classes where several children and young people come to us.” The minister also announced the establishment of a so-called task force to coordinate the measures. There should also be offers for psychosocial care. It is also being examined how Ukrainian educators and teachers could be used, initially as support.
Associations and countries are demanding help
Against this background, teacher associations and federal states are demanding more money and teachers for schools. These would have to receive financial support and additional staff “without bureaucratic hurdles,” said the chairman of the Education and Training Association, Udo Beckmann, to the newspapers of the editorial network Germany (RND).
The chairwoman of the Education and Science Union, Maike Finnern, also called for more teachers with qualifications to teach German as a foreign language and interpreters in the RND newspapers. The educators would also have to be trained in dealing with the topics of flight and traumatization.
Bavaria’s Minister of Education, Michael Piazolo, spoke in the “Augsburger Allgemeine” for financial aid from the federal government. “We will have to create additional capacities in the schools,” he said. “It is crucial to find enough teachers.” The federal government must participate in the task.
Federal Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger spoke out in favor of employing teachers from Ukraine in German schools. “We need quick solutions – Ukrainian teachers who have fled will certainly want to and be able to help with this,” said the FDP politician to the newspapers of the Funke media group. She will talk about this with her colleagues from the federal states at the Conference of Ministers of Education. This meets until Friday in Lübeck. In addition to dealing with refugee children from Ukraine, the heads of department want to advise on the pandemic.