Eleven-year-old Anton recently gave a presentation on the Bavarian Forest. Born in Ukraine not far from the Russian border, grew up in Kiev, fled the war a few months ago; and now he’s standing here, in a high school in the east of Munich, talking about the Bavarian Forest. In German.
Anton is one of 19 students in the bridge class at the Michaeli-Gymnasium. They are between ten and 16 years old, come from Kiev, Odessa and Dnipro, and now they sit in a class and are taught German, English, math, biology and geography. They have sport, music, art or even English and French in common with the German school children.
Anton only started learning German in April. And now gives presentations in German.
(Photo: Lorenz Mehrlich)
The better the knowledge of German, the more time the Ukrainian girls and boys spend in regular classes. “The children should grow out of the bridging classes. Our long-term goal is to integrate them completely,” says school director Frank Jung. What they need most of all is time. The children have experienced a lot, seen a lot. Many are only beginning to open up now, after several months, gradually arriving, beginning to learn.
Around 2,000 children and young people from Ukraine are currently attending public schools in Munich. That is almost two percent of all students. The most important goal: to learn German quickly. The younger children, about half, attend normal primary school classes. Some who already speak German well attend classes at secondary schools.
The other 1,000 or so children and young people have been attending one of the 63 bridging classes that have been set up at middle schools, junior high schools and high schools since autumn. No matter what type of school: The lessons in the bridging classes should be the same everywhere. Which school the children will go to afterwards will be decided in May when the teachers give each child a recommendation.
There were problems with the bridging classes, especially at the beginning, admits Bettina Betz, head of the state school board. It was difficult to find teachers. And some of them were overwhelmed and didn’t know how to impart knowledge to children with completely different levels of learning in the mixed-age classes.
“It’s a challenge to support the different children in such a way that they don’t get bored or have discipline problems,” says Betz. “When the children speak Ukrainian to each other, it’s not easy for the teacher.” And learning German does not succeed as quickly as in regular classes or in German classes in which all the students speak different languages. What Bettina Betz likes: That all schools accept Ukrainian children. “Previously, integration was a task for elementary and middle schools. There were no German classes at Realschule or Gymnasium. Now all types of schools bear this burden.”
The idea of the bridge classes was that the children and young people learn German there for a year and then switch to a regular class – depending on their level of performance. Last week, the Ministry of Education changed the requirement: If you don’t speak German well enough, you should stay in one of the “proven bridging classes” for the time being.
The teachers’ association criticizes the bridge classes
Martin Schmid, chairman of the Munich teachers’ association, sees the bridge classes critically. “You only had to invent them because the German classes were extremely reduced beforehand,” he complains. Now children of different ages sit together, classes are taught by students and temporary staff, and the quality suffers. “We can accommodate the children, but integrating them is something else.”
Maria Degtiarenko from Odessa has been running the Dusmo language school in Munich since April. Ukrainians of all ages take German courses here, and the lessons are financed by donations. “A lot is being done for the Ukrainian children,” she says. Her daughter was warmly welcomed in her primary school class, now she is a guest student at a high school and her German is getting better and better. “She even imitates the speech melody.” She thinks it’s important that Ukrainian and German children come into contact with each other so that they learn the language faster, find friends and settle in.
Semen, Veronika and Maria from the bridge class at Michaeli-Gymnasium know children from other classes, they say. But communication is often still difficult: “I understand some things, but they talk so quickly,” says 13-year-old Semen. Out of the whole group, it is eleven-year-old Anton who attends most of the lessons in a regular class, despite being one of the youngest. “He has such a strong will to learn and to be accepted into the mainstream class,” says Silke Douglas-Kloninger, coordinator for the bridge class.
Silke Douglas-Kloninger teaches geography to the Ukrainian children. One topic: the Free State of Bavaria.
(Photo: Lorenz Mehrlich)
Things don’t go so smoothly for everyone, she says. “Several children don’t want to be here, don’t want to go to school here, they want to go home.” Children refused to go to class, mothers were in despair, and then there was the language barrier. “It was a very challenging time for all of us,” says Douglas-Kloninger. And she criticizes that there is no psychological support for the teachers, no supervision. “We are very close to the children and their feelings. And we have to absorb all of that.”
“From Kyiv with love” – this gift for the teachers who look after his daughter in Munich was sent by a father from Ukraine.
(Photo: Lorenz Mehrlich)
And then in January a parcel from the Ukraine arrived at the Michaeli-Gymnasium. A father, a photographer by trade, now in the medical service, sent photographs from Ukraine. He wrote on a card: “from Kyiv with love”. As a thank you for taking such good care of his daughter here. “I cried at home first,” says Douglas-Kloninger. And she knew again what she was doing it all for.