According to the UN, more than three million people fled Ukraine before the war. A task force is to take care of the schooling of the refugee children in Germany.
Education politicians in the federal states estimate that around half of the war refugees from Ukraine arriving in Germany are children and young people who will sooner or later find accommodation in schools or day-care centers.
There is no reliable data so far, said the head of the new task force of the Conference of Ministers of Education (KMK) for the topic, Hans Beckmann (SPD), the German Press Agency. At the first meeting of the group of experts on Friday, however, country representatives made such an estimate. He announced queries in the schools.
New task force
The task force with representatives from all 16 federal states was set up by the KMK to coordinate the admission and school attendance of Ukrainian children and young people nationwide. According to Beckmann, they would have to “quickly get into fixed structures”. It is about, for example, that young people who are now about to take their final exam in Ukraine can also take this exam, as well as online teaching material and recruiting Ukrainian teachers and educators. The Schleswig-Holstein Minister of Education and KMK President Karin Prien (CDU) had also spoken of more school social workers and psychologists.
Refugees and the education system
According to official figures, around 200,000 war refugees have come to Germany from there since the start of the Russian attack on Ukraine. Most are women and children. However, only those who are encountered by the federal police, for example at train stations or on trains, are recorded.
Beckmann was optimistic that the German education system would be able to cope well with the task. Not everything will go smoothly. But everyone involved would have a great interest in finding good solutions that would benefit the children. “We have to help these children. Some of them have experienced such terrible things and now they need solid structures. They need the opportunity to play with other children, to exchange ideas.” There are also traumatized children who need some time before they can go to school at all. You also have to make offers to them on the spot.
The Ukrainian Consul General Iryna Tybinka recently appealed to the Ministers of Education to pay attention to the continuity of the educational processes and to maintaining the national identity of Ukrainian children. It is about a temporary stay in Germany.
“We all wish that this terrible war will be over soon. And that all Ukrainian families who want to can go back. But nobody knows how long that will take, »said Beckmann. According to him, it’s about both: “On the one hand, it’s about the children being integrated when they come to our schools.” They should interact with other children, feel comfortable and welcome, but also be able to maintain their Ukrainian identity and catch up on lessons they have missed from Ukraine.
Ukrainian teachers
A lot will depend on how long the war lasts and also on where and how the children are accommodated. Beckmann referred to an example from Rhineland-Palatinate, where two children entered the first class of a small school. “They learn German so quickly, it’s hard to imagine.” Elsewhere, for example in large cities, purely Ukrainian learning groups or welcome classes are formed because there are many children.
When recruiting Ukrainian teachers, all available options must be used: social media, Instagram, Facebook, Ukrainian associations. “The Ukrainian community is very well connected. I’m confident that if we use the different channels, we can also recruit staff.”
UNICEF appeals to Putin
In view of the humanitarian emergency in Ukraine, the director of the UN children’s fund Unicef, Catherine Russell, is appealing to Russian President Vladimir Putin to end his army’s attacks immediately. «You must stop this war! He’s terrible. Its effects on children are unacceptable and abhorrent,” Russell told the German Press Agency. The local people and the fleeing women and children are “completely innocent” and have nothing to do with the conflict, Russell said. “You didn’t deserve this.”
The American, who has been in office since February, traveled from New York to Germany this week to discuss, among other things, the situation in Ukraine with representatives of the federal government. Germany is the second largest donor to Unicef in the world.
Russell expressed deep concern about developments in Ukraine, where Russian attacks continued three weeks after the war began on February 24. 148 Unicef employees are still in the country to provide people with essentials, Russell reported. According to the aid organization, it has set up 26 contact points, so-called “Blue Dots”, along the escape routes to provide care for refugees and to mediate with bureaucratic hurdles. It’s also about registering people, Russell explained. The aid organization also makes sure that there is no human trafficking or children being taken away by strangers.
“It is the fastest influx of refugees since World War II. That’s a big challenge for the receiving countries,” Russell said. In Germany, too, one has to ask oneself the question of how and in which language one wants to teach the many children and young people.
In conversations on the Ukrainian border with Romania, she often heard that the refugees wanted to “go home soon”. But experience has shown that this is not very realistic, said Russell.
The Unicef boss also recalled the situation of children in other crisis areas such as Afghanistan and Yemen, which are currently no longer in the public eye. In Afghanistan, for example, there is currently a “terrible humanitarian crisis”. Children were in danger of starving. “We expect that in the next two to three months, 95 percent of the population will be living below the poverty line,” Russell said.
Your organization says it has 15,000 employees in 190 countries – most of them in developing and emerging countries and in crisis areas.
refugees in Poland
According to the border guards, more than two million refugees from the neighboring country have arrived in Poland since the beginning of the war. It was mainly women and children, the authority said on Twitter. So yesterday alone there were around 52,500 people. This is a drop of eleven percent compared to the previous day. About 227,000 people have crossed the border from Poland to Ukraine since the war began on February 24.
Tweet Pol. border guard
There is currently no official information on how many of the war refugees stayed in Poland and how many have already traveled on to other EU countries. Ukraine – the largest country in Europe by area – had a population of more than 44 million before the Russian attack began. Poland and Ukraine are connected by a national border that is more than 500 kilometers long.
Source: Stern
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