They left their country, but not the school benches.
Nearly 800 Ukrainian children who have arrived since the start of the conflict are currently attending school in France, said Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer on Tuesday, traveling to an elementary school near Paris with Brigitte Macron.
“787 children are currently in school, it is a figure that remains reasonable but we know very well that it will grow in the coming days.
We are organized for this welcome with crisis cells in each rectorate of France, ”explained to the press Jean-Michel Blanquer.
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“There are several aspects: schooling, but also educational resources for teachers.
We have already produced some so that teachers know how to talk about Ukraine and the situation to children.
We also have to be careful that they keep the link with their country,” he added.
“Preserving” children from war
The minister and Brigitte Macron spoke with three Ukrainian students who have been schooled since Monday in the CE2 and CM2 class of an educational unit for incoming allophone students (UPE2A), at the Jean-Jacques Rousseau elementary school in Épinay-sur- Seine (Seine-Saint-Denis).
Ukrainian schoolchildren, aged 8 to 10, timidly answered questions from visitors, through an interpreter, saying they were "happy to be in this school" and "playing football with the other children ".
"We have reception experience in the languages of the children, in this case in Ukrainian, to find out where they are, what their level is, how to welcome them psychologically", indicated the Minister, stressing that he is “It is important to preserve children as much as possible from this harshness (of war, editor’s note)”.
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Very moved by the exchange with the three students and their Ukrainian mothers, the wife of President Emmanuel Macron addressed them, recalling that they "are welcome".
"The French will welcome them as they always do, with their hearts," she told reporters.
"We explained to them why, and how much we were with them," she added.
Asked about her exchanges with the wife of the Ukrainian president, Brigitte Macron said "communicate (r) in writing with her".
“His essential, permanent concern is the children, knowing a little how they arrive, under what conditions they arrive and what we do,” she said.
