Gebauer: Almost 8,800 Ukrainian students in NRW classrooms
Created: 04/11/2022Updated: 04/11/2022 16:57
A note with the text "I am ... and come from Ukraine" is hanging on the door of a classroom.
© Marijan Murat/dpa/symbol image
Thousands of schoolchildren who have fled are also coming to NRW from the Ukraine.
A new concept for their lessons from elementary school to entering university now provides the framework.
First of all, German is the be-all and end-all.
Düsseldorf - Almost 8,800 refugee children and young people from the Ukraine are now being taught at schools in North Rhine-Westphalia.
Half of the 8753 students - 4355 boys and girls - learn in a primary school, as Education Minister Yvonne Gebauer (FDP) announced on Monday.
The other half is distributed among all secondary school types.
Almost 2,000 schools in the country have taken in refugees from Ukraine.
As of April 6, almost 400 Ukrainian students were attending a secondary school and around 500 young people were attending a junior high school and a secondary school.
In addition, 1,040 young people were accommodated in a comprehensive school and almost 1,550 refugee Ukrainians in a high school.
Gebauer stressed that learning the German language had top priority.
The German support can initially take place entirely in a separate study group.
Parallel learning in a regular class and at the same time in a German learning group is also possible - or even language acquisition only as part of regular lessons.
As soon as the knowledge of German is sufficient, the Ukrainian students are then assigned to the type of school that suits their level of learning and their development.
The teaching staff should decide on this, as stated in a framework concept that Gebauer presented in Düsseldorf.
It is based on many discussions with schools, parents, teachers and local umbrella organizations.
Older immigrant students (secondary level II) from the Ukraine - if they cannot follow the lessons in the upper level of comprehensive school or grammar school due to a lack of German language skills - should first learn German in international remedial classes at vocational colleges.
There are currently a good 1800 spaces left.
From there, a transition to other offers such as dual training is also possible.
According to the minister, the district government of Cologne is responsible for the recognition of Ukrainian qualifications up to the intermediate school leaving certificate.
In the future, the district government in Düsseldorf will check whether there is an entitlement to enter a university.
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According to Gebauer, native language lessons are also being prepared.
It means a "piece of home".
She assumes that many refugee families will stay longer in NRW than they would actually like.
It will probably be months or years before she can return to her homeland, which has been severely damaged in part by the Russian war of aggression.
Integration is all the more important.
Open all-day care is also available for the newly arrived elementary school students.
If the local authorities wanted to increase the number of schools here, the state could still make places available - "with a double funding approach", as State Secretary Mathias Richter emphasized.
After the federal government promised more than one billion euros to the state for health, daycare and schools, the cabinet would quickly decide "how we split it up," announced the minister.
Additional teachers are needed - and so you advertise among retirees, student teachers and the approximately 5,600 fully trained teachers who have not yet been hired.
Measures to recruit staff are already underway.
Soon there will be advertisements specifically for Ukrainian teachers among the refugees.
dpa
