The “Never Hungry Caterpillar” makes Andreas Fischer rave about the Ukrainian children who recently spoke German on stage during the performance of the play. “It’s just incredible what has happened since Easter,” says the primary school principal. Sixteen Ukrainian girls and boys study at his school in Landau an der Isar. So everything is fine on this last day of school before the holidays?
“I’m cautiously optimistic,” says Fischer, who is head of the school management association. The “but” follows promptly: imponderables, with which all school principals in Bavaria are currently concerned, spoil his mood. He doesn’t know how many classes he can form in the fall. It is not clear whether all the Ukrainian children will still be in Landau or whether some will be back home. It was only by chance that he already had a colleague who speaks Ukrainian and Russian. Finding new ones is difficult. The Ukrainian “welcome forces” are not intended for primary schools. The most pressing question is whether Fischer will even have enough teachers.
A good 30,000 children and young people from the Ukraine will be required to go to school in the autumn. They will be distributed among almost all types of schools and will learn together with the other 1.6 million students. The youngest in elementary schools in mainstream classes, most of the older Ukrainians will study in bridge classes. As a group, they have ten hours of German per week, another nine of math and English. In addition, there are elective subjects, sports, art or music together with Bavarian students.
“This idea is also sensible,” says Benedikt Mehl. But? The organization cost him even more time and effort as headmaster. And the concept has a major weakness, says Mehl. At the Pirckheimer Gymnasium in Nuremberg, the director put his team of teachers and volunteers together himself, several colleagues have increased their staff, and pensioners have returned to work. Mehl’s wish was even fulfilled, he has a homogeneous age group instead of children of all years, as in many other schools.
Most want the universities
Tenth graders in particular learn at the Pirckheimer, many are hardworking, the mothers are “noticeably behind”. These students would now get the middle school certificate “as a gift”. Whoever successfully completes the tenth grade at the Gymnasium has it automatically. “But that doesn’t do them any good, so they can’t just go to a Fos afterwards,” says Mehl. The language requirements there, as well as in integration classes (Ingym) at high schools, are far too high. The problem is that these students are no longer required to go to school at the age of 16 and there are no other low-threshold offers. In 2015, vocational schools had prepared many refugees for the job market. Something like that misses flour. In Nuremberg, there’s a rumor that the vocational schools ducked it, he says.
Pankraz little man contradicts: “The vocational schools don’t refuse! We are open and ready.” But most Ukrainian students didn’t want to go into the dual system, they wanted to go to schools and universities. “We have to wait and see how the situation develops,” says the head of the association for teachers at vocational schools. So far there have been neither new jobs nor staff for teaching Ukrainian at vocational schools. In addition to the Ingym classes, the Ministry of Education also refers to adult education at adult education centers.
Campaign for more staff
3,500 Bavarian teachers are already working for Ukrainian students, and there are 1,620 new jobs. It is questionable whether the Ministry of Culture will find the people for it. Associations and headmasters are again complaining about the lack of staff this year. The ministry has long been recruiting pensioners, part-time workers and students. One tries to mobilize everything, they say. The situation must be serious, because even the employment ban is to be discussed in secret.
Pregnant women currently have to stay away from school in order not to become infected with the corona virus. According to the Ministry of Education, even those who want to teach at their own risk should not be allowed to do so. It is said that the Ministry of Social Affairs is responsible for this rule. There they hold on to the protection of pregnant women. 2900 teachers are currently affected. You should help from home. “Over the weeks and months they don’t help us in distance learning,” says Andreas Fischer. Especially at elementary schools with 80 percent female teachers, the employment ban is a problem.
The war in the Ukraine and the corona virus did not leave the schools untouched, says Minister Michael Piazolo (Freie Wahler) regularly. Nobody should expect that. However, this answer satisfies neither parents nor teachers’ associations. In order to tackle the problem of teacher shortages in the long term, Piazolo is now initiating a campaign for the teaching profession, which is intended to target students of all types of schools and uses Tiktok and Instagram influencers in addition to posters.