Düsseldorf (dpa/lnw) – Since the start of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine a year ago, the schools in North Rhine-Westphalia have taken in more than 37,000 refugee Ukrainian children and young people. School Minister Dorothee Feller (CDU) announced on Wednesday that the number of people who had not yet been assigned a place at school had been “noticeably and continuously” reduced in the past few months. In mid-February, 537 Ukrainians still had no school place after the consultation. Another 310 children and young people were still waiting for their counseling session.
“The Russian invasion brought great suffering to Ukraine,” Feller said. “It is our humanitarian task to take in the children and young people affected by the war and to help them.” The fact that this is successful is an “enormous achievement by the schools, the school authorities and the many volunteers in North Rhine-Westphalia”.
Depending on their individual knowledge of German and their level of learning, the Ukrainian children are divided directly into regular classes or their own learning groups. In order to integrate them quickly, a transition to the control system is sought after two years at the latest, it said.
More than 4,300 additional positions have been made available to ensure that the students who have fled are taught. In addition, the schools have already been able to hire 1,266 temporary teachers, 102 of whom are Ukrainian nationals.
