Classes for refugee children: Federal Minister of Education wants to bring refugee teachers to schools

Federal Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger wants refugee teachers from Ukraine to work in schools and day-care centers in Germany.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin is forcing women and children to flee, who are now increasingly arriving in Germany, the FDP politician told the newspapers of the Funke media group.

Sufficient daycare and school places are needed for refugee children and young people.

It needs a quick fix.

"Refugee Ukrainian teachers will certainly want to and be able to help," said Stark-Watzinger.

This Thursday, the Ministers of Education of the federal states will meet in Lübeck.

The point is to quickly offer the children who have fled school an offer, as the President of the Conference of Ministers of Education and Schleswig-Holstein Head of Department Karin Prien (CDU) announced.

Before the start of the conference, the Ministers of Education will meet with the Ukrainian Consul General Iryna Tybinka.

Faced with the challenge, several education unions are demanding more money for schools.

The President of the German Teachers' Association, Heinz-Peter Meidinger, called for more teaching staff to be hired.

"I can imagine that you can also recruit more teaching students and retired teachers for this, because there is an enormous willingness to help in society.

But the state must also provide additional resources for this," he told the Funke newspapers.

There is already a massive shortage of teachers.

Trauma work specialists needed

The chairman of the Association for Education and Training (VBE), Udo Beckmann, said that school staff are usually not trained for trauma work.

"In order to be able to meet the special needs of these children in the best possible way in the current situation, multi-professional teams are needed," Beckmann told the editorial network Germany.

The Chairwoman of the Education and Science Union (GEW), Maike Finnern, explained: "Teachers and pedagogical specialists must be made aware of the topic of 'war, flight and trauma', for this they need further education and training opportunities."

According to the UN refugee agency UNHCR, more than 2.1 million people have fled since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine (as of Tuesday), mostly women and children.

The government in Kyiv has banned Ukrainian men between the ages of 18 and 60 from leaving the country, and they are subject to conscription.

In Germany, more than 80,000 war refugees have now been identified by the federal police.

Since there are no border controls at the internal EU borders, the number could be much higher.