Education: a hundred Ukrainian children educated in Toulouse and Haute-Garonne
The Haute-Garonne school inspectorate recorded 93 registrations of Ukrainian children, mostly in schools in the department. In total, 118 applications for registration have been sent since the beginning of the conflict.
Ukrainian children, already tested by a long journey through their country at war since February 24 (nearly 2 million have fled the conflict), find themselves quite quickly, for the time being, to enroll in a school, college or high school in Haute-Garonne.
The Toulouse academy has activated its “Ukrainian cell” with a telephone number, like the Ministry of National Education, which has created a page dedicated to Ukrainian refugees who find instructions for schooling their( s) child in France.
“Proficiency in French is a key issue for the success of allophone pupils”, recalls the ministry, but young Ukrainians, educated with the Cyrillic alphabet, will not be systematically integrated into UPE2A type classes (educational units for incoming allophone pupils ), said Thursday, March 31, the deputy academic director of Haute-Garonne (Dasen) Aymeric Meiss.
“A question of comfort”
“If the child can benefit from a UPE2A, that’s fine, but we’re not going to try to educate all Ukrainian children in these educational units, which are not in all establishments. It’s a matter of convenience for the parents, so that they don’t have to take additional transport to go to school,” explains Deputy Dasen.
In the department, for the moment, 118 parents have contacted schools, colleges and high schools. Some registration requests come directly from host families who have anticipated the arrival of a student at their home and who do the process on behalf of the family, indicate the academic inspection.
93 Ukrainians educated in primary school
“Of the 118 students, 93 are already in class and it is fairly well distributed in the department: the majority of Ukrainian students are educated in schools, half of which are in Toulouse,” adds Aymeric Meiss. The question of bringing together several families in the same place of reception would also be taken into account by the academic inspectorate, which could choose to educate “all the children in the same establishment, if it is close to the place of residence. “says Mr. Meiss.
In many schools, whose managements have taken note of the new directives for the reception of children arriving from Ukraine, “resource teachers” are already at work, adds Dasen, including “itinerant teachers who travel in 1st degree establishments.
Resource teachers
On the ground, not everything flows from source. “I who teach in a UPE2A class, I was informed that we had to pay special attention to Ukrainian students, but without too many details. I will do as I usually do with my other students who do not speak French, ”says this fifty-year-old teacher who wishes to remain anonymous.
The trauma of some children is also an element that the administration must take into account, ensuring that “we have mobilized social psychologists”. Teachers, whom Aymeric Meiss calls “voluntarism”, who speak English, Russian, even Ukrainian are obviously designated as important “resources” with regard to the context.
“These psychologists intervene apart from the psychological follow-up that the families requested on their arrival in France, we already welcome children from other countries at war”, found the academic director.
Talking to students about the war in Ukraine
Everything seems planned by the part of the Ministry of National Education, Youth and Sports which has already been published in a guide for teachers who do not address the subject of the war in Ukraine. First of all, the context: “Elementary school pupils very often do not have a clear and precise knowledge of the events currently taking place in Ukraine. If not what their parents were able to tell them, their knowledge, gleaned here or there, is often very partial and can raise questions or even concerns, offers a guide. It is therefore important to respond to them by providing them with simple and precise geographical and historical landmarks. Locating, naming, explaining are indeed the most effective way for students to contain and remain calm in a potentially anxiety-provoking situation for their family and those around them”.