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They lost their homeland, but German schools are now trying to prevent refugee children from Ukraine from losing their education and future. A difficult task also due to the pandemic.
Every day refugee children who have just left Ukraine come to the train station in Berlin and Cologne. Volunteer forces find them on station platforms, silent and without orientation. Often with a toy with you. It is estimated that almost half of all Ukrainian refugees arriving in Germany are school-age children.
A future for the most vulnerable to war
To help the most vulnerable victims of the war launched by Putin, German states, municipalities and schools want to make sure that children do not miss the school year. An attempt to soften their fate a little, to give them a perspective. The need is great: “Lands have found that the influx of refugee children is much larger than originally thought. There are now consultations on where the opportunities are, in which schools, where there are spaces that can be made available for teaching, where we have teachers, such as those who specialize in the German language “, says the head of the Federal Association for Education, VBE, Udo Beckmann in a conversation with DW.
Record of medical reports
The problem is that after two years of the Corona pandemic, a challenge to the German education system, many teachers are within their capacity. Even before the pandemic, many schools complained about the lack of teaching staff. The pandemic exacerbated this condition through deficiencies created by infections. Now comes the dual challenge “to teach refugee children at the same time, precisely when schools have very few staff,” says Beckmann.
The German Teachers’ Association warns of a record of medical reports to teaching staff currently, as never before during the pandemic. “We estimate that about 10% of the teaching team find it impossible to teach because they have a medical report. But not all because of the virus. “There are other reasons why teachers are missing, but normally, this is less than half the cases,” Heinz-Peter Meidinger, president of the Teachers’ Association, told DW.
Another challenge is expected. Many refugee children saw fear in the eyes of their parents, they may be traumatized and require more intensive treatment. “They have an exodus behind them, which has lasted many, many hours. Maybe they should have shared with the fathers. “Maybe they saw how their house was destroyed by the bombs,” said Anja Bensinger-Stolze of the Education and Science Union, GEW.
Psychological help for children
These experiences can sooner or later lead to trauma to children and young people, which they should not carry with them. “That’s why we need psychological help, either through school psychologists or teachers who have been trained to do this,” Bensinger-Stolze said. Teachers must then decide how to act in such situations.
The conference of the ministers of culture of the states in Germany decided a few days ago the creation of a task force for coordination and a contact center. Pupils can be admitted to schools “without much bureaucracy”, it is said. German Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger proposed that refugee teachers from Ukraine work in schools and kindergartens to somewhat alleviate staffing needs.
Support from retired teachers
So far no one was able to send in the perfect solution, which is not strange. The head of the Meidinger Teachers Association is skeptical. “This will be a drop in the ocean and not the key to a solution.” Meidinger thinks it would be more helpful in this situation for retired teachers to be engaged because of the current humanitarian crisis. He sees the care and education of refugee children from Ukraine as a “national challenge”.
Germany can also rely on the experience of 2015, when the wave of Syrian refugees came. Hospitality and language classes were established in many regions at that time. “These basic structures can be reactivated quickly,” says Udo Beckmann of the VBE. Berlin e.g. plans to create 50 hospitality classes for young people from 16 years old.
Return to the culture of welcome
But there are still open questions: how many Ukrainian children will still come? Will it be tens of thousands, or a few hundred thousand people? Another factor is time, how long will they stay in Germany? Will Germany prepare for a long period of their stay? What is known is that currently the civic readiness for help in Germany is great.
The culture of welcome has returned to Germany. ”I have the impression that there is a great deal of solidarity. Many people take to the streets and wave the Ukrainian flag. “A lot of people help concretely,” said education expert Anja Bensinger-Stolze. But because of the recent challenges the German education system has gone through, one might recall a quote from former German President Joachim Gauck on the migration crisis in 2015. “Our hearts are big but our opportunities are limited.” DW
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