A few weeks ago, I struck up a conversation with the aunt of an eight-year-old Ukrainian boy in a bouncy castle park in Pullach. I found out that she also studied foreign languages and is also a teacher. A colleague, I was happy and I was sure that she now also teaches at a school here. Probably like me German and English for the Ukrainian children. I was wrong: the young woman has been working as a waitress for 16 months, after all she has to earn her living.
I was very sorry to hear that because she graduated from one of the best universities in Ukraine for teaching foreign languages and she speaks really fluently. She also lived in Germany a few years after her studies. But she is not allowed to work as a teacher, and she is not even recognized as an educator.
Although there is a shortage of teachers in Bavaria, Ukrainian certificates are not recognised
Yours is just one of many examples in my area. I know several teachers for English and German as a foreign language, but also some for mathematics and also primary school teachers. They all have the same problem: Their certificates are not recognized, although there is a shortage of teachers in Germany and Bavaria.
That affects me too. Although I graduated from the largest and best university in Ukraine for foreign languages and taught there for seven years, that counts for almost nothing here. At least I can teach a bridging class in a Munich school. However, my salary group is significantly lower than that of my German colleagues because my experience is not recognised. The contract is also only limited to the end of a bridge class. The perspective is unclear.
It was interesting for me to learn that the recognition of certificates in Germany is a matter for the federal states. I have heard from colleagues in Berlin and Saxony-Anhalt that their certificates have been recognised. In Bavaria, on the other hand, you have to complete another three-year course and a new traineeship – regardless of previous educational experience. This is unrealistic for most of us, mostly women who fled to Germany with their children.
Many of my Ukrainian colleagues will therefore work as educators in an after-school care center in the next school year, but without receiving the wages of an educator. Others consider whether they have to give up their profession or move to another federal state where they can have their certificates recognised. In both cases, Bavarian children are the losers because qualified people leave.
I absolutely understand that the level of the teaching profession is set high in Germany. However, I am convinced that the experience of Ukrainian teachers is useful. For me it would be logical to develop programs to respond flexibly to the pedagogical expertise of teachers from Ukraine as well as from other countries. For example, I know of a good tenure program at middle school that is based on advanced training for foreigners with teaching experience. I would be happy if our experience was used in Bavaria.
Emiliia Dieniezhna, 35, fled from Kiev with her then four-year-old daughter Ewa Pullach near Munich. She works voluntarily for the non-governmental organization NAKO, which aims to fight corruption in Ukraine. She also teaches German to Ukrainian refugee children. Once a week she writes a column for the SZ about her view from Munich on the events in her home country.