There is a lack of apartments to accommodate refugees from Ukraine. In the coming days and weeks, hundreds of people will first move into lightweight halls that are currently being set up at four locations in the city. Also in Berg am Laim near the Michaeli-Gymnasium. Between 300 and 400 refugees from Ukraine are to be housed there from the second half of May. According to a spokesman for the social department, it is not yet clear who will move into the lightweight halls, how many adults and how many children will live there. It is also unclear how long people will live there.
The director of the nearby Michaeli-Gymnasium wonders how things will continue once the refugees have arrived in the lightweight halls. Where should the children go to school? So far they have taken in 18 Ukrainian children at the Michaeli-Gymnasium. “More is not possible,” says Frank Jung. “We don’t have the space or staff to care for and teach more children.” After all, the preliminary classes for the Riemer Gymnasium are currently being looked after at the school. So far, he says, no one has approached him or the surrounding primary and secondary schools to talk to them about the schooling of the children. He misses a concept of how the schools should deal with the situation.
After the Easter holidays, a meeting of the school managements of the surrounding schools at this location will take place, said the head of the Josephsburgstraße primary school, Vera Reindl. There they will talk about taking in the Ukrainian children.
In addition to the location in Berg am Laim, three more are planned, two in the Sendling-Westpark district and one at the southern end of the Bogenhausen district. There should be a total of 860 places in the four locations. A lightweight hall with 250 seats is already in the Milbertshofen-Am Hart district.
Construction of a lightweight hall: One of the provisional structures is being built near the Michaeli-Gymnasium in the Berg am Laim district.
(Photo: Florian Peljak)
Bettina Betz, head of the State Education Office, says that we will see which schools will be used to teach the children who will be living in the lightweight halls from May onwards when the children are there. It is clear that there will be different schools. “Then we have to help each other and see where we can put the children.” In advance, the school authority does not receive any information about how many children of what age are moving in. Therefore, the school authority cannot yet make any arrangements for welcome offers.
In mid-April, almost 1,600 Ukrainian children and young people are attending schools in Munich. The number changes a lot, sometimes from one day to the next, says Bettina Betz. The school directors report the number of children and the number of the so-called welcome groups to the school authority via a portal. There are now 41 of these in Munich schools – the majority of refugee children are currently being taught in regular classes in Munich. Also because the schools lack the staff for extra groups.
The elementary and middle schools should fill up their classes, 28 to 30 children per class is the announcement. And if all else fails, then the headteacher would have to report it to the school authority, says Betz. So far, no conversation has mentioned that one or more schools are overcrowded.
“We have had good experiences with the regular classes,” says Bettina Betz. “The Ukrainian parents are very grateful that their children are being taught there, education is very important to them and they also want their children to learn German.” Nevertheless, one tries to make the children more offers in welcome groups in the future. These welcome groups are the idea of the Ministry of Education to look after the refugee children and young people and to teach them their first knowledge of German. The groups are also designed to prevent overcrowded rule classes.
Welcome groups are also to be set up in day-care centers
So far, Bettina Betz says that she has not heard from any Munich school that she can no longer accept children. She therefore assumes that inquiring children can still be accommodated. The middle schools exchange ideas in the existing associations, and the elementary schools are doing the same thing: four or five elementary schools are in contact with each other and regulate among themselves which school can accept which children in which grade.
Welcome groups for Ukrainian day-care center children are to be set up in the day-care centers located in the vicinity of communal accommodation and the lightweight construction halls. A spokesman for the Department for Education and Sport said that one was in contact with the facilities in order to identify unused spaces or spaces that were free during off-peak times. It is still too early to take concrete steps, as it is not yet clear how many children of what age will be accommodated in the lightweight halls. There are already applicants who want to look after these children in the facilities, and the employment modalities are being clarified at the moment.
Schooling is still not compulsory for the refugee children. When children and young people from Ukraine attend schools in Munich, they do so voluntarily. After three months, however, compulsory schooling begins – even the head of the state school authority does not yet know what the lessons will look like. Perhaps it will then be an advantage that so many Ukrainian children are already attending normal classes, says Bettina Betz.