Germany: Thousands of refugee children unable to attend school
Some 4,000 refugee children and teenagers who fled to Germany from Ukraine and other countries are currently not able to attend public schools due to a lack of available spots.
Some 4,000 refugee children and teenagers who fled to Germany from Ukraine and other countries are currently not able to attend public schools due to a lack of available spots.
Maryam and her five children have been homeless since November. Every night, they have to find a place to rest a few hours before the children return to class the next day. InfoMigrants followed the family during a night looking for shelter.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has forced millions of people, mostly women and children, to flee their homes since February 24, 2022. Nearly five million of them are believed to have escaped abroad, forcing them to integrate into a new country as they leave behind the life they were used to. A year later, we went to visit a school in Strasbourg in eastern France, where several dozen Ukrainian refugees are building a new future for themselves, not far from the European Parliament.
How refugee children are educated in Germany depends on where they live. And that can have far-reaching consequences.
12 out of Germany's 16 states currently don't have space to host new refugees, according to a media report. Meanwhile the number of unauthorized entries across the Czech-German border has reached a record high.
More than five months after the beginning of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, over 150,000 Ukrainian students are registered in German schools. The news comes as the number of refugees who've fled Ukraine reached the ten million mark this week.
The percentage of students who are not of Italian nationality in the Italian school system increased slightly in 2020-21. Of the more than 860,000 foreign students, approximately 66.7% is of second generation, meaning they were born on Italian soil.
UNICEF and the Akelius foundation have introduced an e-learning platform into Italian schools for language learning. The aim is to support newly arrived students with their learning of the Italian language as well as Italian students with learning English.
The committee of Italian students, teachers and parents "School Priority" has launched a campaign to ask for the quick approval of a citizenship reform, the so-called "Ius Scholae" (Right to School).
A reported 12,000 Ukrainian minors have been enrolled in Italian schools, out of a total of 30,467 minors who have reached the country as of Friday, April 1. Overall, Italy is currently hosting some 79,000 Ukrainian refugees. Over 1,800 sleeping accommodations and several apartments confiscated by authorities from criminal organizations have been made available for them.
German schools want to make sure that Ukrainian refugee children do not lose out on education. But, after two years of the coronavirus pandemic, the system is already overstretched.
The OTB Foundation of designer and entrepreneur Renzo Rosso -- co-founder of the Diesel brand -- and the UN refugee agency have announced a partnership for the construction of a new school in Mozambique. The initiative is part of the "Instant Network Schools" program for the education of refugee children.