Ukrainian online lessons during the German lesson – district of Munich

The children’s news program “Logo” is broadcast in Ukrainian in the art room at the Taufkirchen secondary school. One of the videos is about depression. Around 20 boys and girls between the ages of ten and 16 watch with interest. “How did you feel when you fled,” asks teacher Julia Dorszcz in English. “It was very bad leaving our home,” replies a boy, also in English. Dorszcz actually teaches the welcome group for schoolchildren who have fled the Ukraine in German, but the children and young people don’t speak it very well. And the teacher wants to give them the opportunity to tell how they are doing. “It’s important to us that they settle in first and feel comfortable,” she says. In any case, there should be no pressure. Later the class goes to the art project in the youth culture center. A few girls hold hands, although they have only known each other for a short time – the welcome group was only set up after the Easter holidays. One has the impression that the children enjoy being among several young people again.

The welcome group is one of many that was formed at Bavarian schools for Ukrainian children to enable “initial school integration”, as the framework concept of the Bavarian Ministry of Education puts it. Children who already speak German well enough could also be accommodated in regular classes, explains Ulrich Barth, director of the school board from the state school board in the district of Munich. That’s the page. However, some students want to continue participating in their Ukrainian online lessons, which many Ukrainian schools quickly set up and continue to offer in various ways. Because compulsory schooling usually only applies three months after moving from abroad, the children can still choose during this time whether they want to take part in German lessons. After that, they have to attend school here, as a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Education explains.

The compatibility of Ukrainian online lessons with compulsory schooling has been raised several times by the district of Munich at a higher level, explains Christine Spiegel, press spokeswoman for the district office. So far, the schools have found uncomplicated and individual solutions to enable Ukrainian children and young people to take part in the online offer in their home country. The decision on exemptions from lessons, which are possible under school law, is made by the school management. In any case, learning German and arriving here is the priority now.

Four schools have joined forces for the welcome group at the Taufkirchner middle school, which currently takes place every day from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. The Lise-Meitner-Gymnasium in Unterhaching, the Walter-Klingenbeck-Realschule in Taufkirchen and the middle school at the sports park in Unterhaching are also involved. “First and foremost, it’s about the students learning the German language, regardless of their level of performance,” says Nikola Kurpas, principal of the Taufkirchen middle school. The Ukrainian Yevheniia Rohulina will be there throughout the morning, she speaks fluent English. She should always be the contact person for the children. “She is also our link between children, parents and school,” says Kurpas. The children not only learn German. In the youth culture center there are art projects, social workers practice practical everyday things like S-Bahn rides with some of the children.

Parents shouldn’t feel any pressure

Attempts are being made to enable participation in Ukrainian online courses in parallel. “If a child says they have online lessons from nine to ten, for example, they can go to an adjoining room,” says Kurpas. For such cases, numerous tablets are available in the school and also in the youth culture center. According to Kurpas, the Ukrainian school year runs until the end of May. From what she has learned, Ukrainian schools should allow children to complete their school year online. Of course we don’t want to deny them that. “The most important thing for us was not to put any pressure on the parents,” she says.

Many individual solutions are required, also because the Ukrainian schools design their online lessons very differently. In the case of 16-year-old Sofia, for example, who attends the welcome group in Taufkirchen, tasks are posted on a platform that she can complete at any time up to a deadline. She likes it in the welcome group. “I feel safe, we tell each other stories,” she says. She also likes the opportunity to continue practicing her already pretty good German. Vika, 15, who also sits in the group, has digital Ukrainian lessons on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, which take place live. “We need to mix up the classes,” she says. Her plan is to take part in Ukrainian lessons via mobile phone and to go to German lessons during the breaks. After the end of the Ukrainian school year at the end of May, three months are free.

If there is still war in Ukraine and she is still here, Vika only wants to attend the German class. Yevheniia Rohulina, whose son is also in the welcome group, decided to send him to German classes as soon as she arrived. “I don’t know how it will be, whether we can go back home,” she says. She discussed the decision with the Ukrainian teacher, her son will not take Ukrainian online lessons. In the meantime, she herself is preparing for all possibilities: If necessary, she wants to teach her son the Ukrainian course content. All materials are online. The fact that the schools quickly made a digital offer available after the start of the war confirms that the structures were already there from the corona pandemic.

However, the dominant issue in the integration of Ukrainian children into everyday school life is not the compatibility of German classes with Ukrainian online lessons. According to Agnes Schmidt, at the Feodor-Lynen-Gymnasium in Planegg, where a welcome group with more than 30 children and young people is also set up, parents first asked whether the child could take part in an appointment on the Ukrainian online service during class may. If something like that happens, of course you want to make it possible, says the teacher, who is responsible for the integration of the Ukrainian students on the school board: “But the focus is on learning German and on the children finding their way around easily.” The feedback from the parents was also in this direction. “We move step by step and focus on the needs of the children,” says Schmidt.

“Most of them value the children arriving at school and learning German”

Gesine Clotz, principal of the elementary school on Friedenstraße in Ottobrunn, describes it in a very similar way. There, too, there is a welcome group with twelve children, the number is constantly changing. The children also attend regular classes on two days because the teacher is only available from Tuesday to Thursday. Clotz only knows that the older students also occasionally have online lessons. Parents can still choose. “But most of them attach great importance to the children arriving at the schools here and learning German,” says the rector. From her point of view, it is particularly important to enable the children to be normal.

It is not yet clear whether Ukrainian online lessons will take place at all in the coming school year. In the school management and in the school office, however, one is convinced that there will be regulations by then. “I believe that by then there will be a good solution for reconciling German classes and Ukrainian online classes,” says school board director Barth. You want the best for the students. The Taufkirchen headmistress Kurpas also assumes that there will be suitable solutions. But she personally, also from the perspective of being a mother, thinks that if the Ukrainian students are still here, they should “concentrate on the German school system.”

Bettina Hahlweg, school psychologist at the state school board, says, on the other hand, that “an interim solution would have to be found” if the Ukrainian online classes were to continue in the coming school year. “On the one hand, it would be important for the identity of the children to be able to continue taking part in Ukrainian online lessons, at the same time integration into the local school system should be supported in order to give the children support, security and future orientation and to enable social participation.”