Are Ukrainian children and young people only staying in Germany temporarily, or should they be integrated as quickly as possible through day-care centers and schools? Experts recommend rapid integration.
Experts from the Conference of Ministers of Education (KMK) advise that children and young people who have fled Ukraine should be accommodated in day-care centers and schools in Germany as quickly as possible.
“All children and young people should go to daycare or school as soon as possible after their arrival,” said Olaf Köller, co-chair of the KMK’s Standing Scientific Committee.
In the facilities, they could learn German, continue their education, make contact with their peers and receive help in dealing with possible trauma. Köller is also scientific director of the Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education (IPN).
The commission, which is made up of 16 educational researchers from various disciplines, presented a statement on the integration of refugee children and young people from Ukraine. The body was set up last year to advise the federal states on the further development of the education system.
“Additional Educational Offers”
Recently, there had been discussions about whether Ukrainian children and young people who had fled to Germany should be quickly integrated or whether they should be cared for and schooled independently according to the Ukrainian model. The Ukrainian Consul General Iryna Tybinka had 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.
In their statement, the scientists now recommend “supplementary educational offers” in Ukrainian “as far as possible”. This is supported by the fact that the families who have fled are highly motivated to return to their country as soon as possible. In the statement, however, the experts also point out that Ukrainian-speaking teachers would have to be “won over and professionalized” for this. In view of the current challenges in schools, it is unlikely that it can be implemented quickly.
According to the experts, smaller children of primary school age should go directly to regular classes and not to so-called preparatory classes, in which only Ukrainian students sit. The Commission also does not think much of lessons in collective accommodation, “because this allows neither contact with children and young people already living in Germany nor the experience of normality associated with school and there is a lack of school infrastructure in collective accommodation”.
Psychological offers up to trauma therapy
Because of the language barrier, the scientists initially recommend joint activities in which language is less important, such as sports or music, for contacts and friendships with refugee children. In addition, the commission pleads for psychological care offers up to and including trauma therapy. “We have to assume that 25 to 35 percent of children and young people from Ukraine suffer from severe psychological stress,” said co-chair Felicitas Thiel and professor of school pedagogy and school development research at Freie Universität Berlin.
Education politicians in the federal states estimate that around half of the war refugees arriving in Germany are children and young people. The KMK has announced that it will present the first figures on Ukrainian children and young people in schools in Germany this week.
Source: Stern

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