Ukrainian children in European schools: language barrier and bullying

A new academic year has begun, and by this time the Ukrainian refugees have already made up their minds whether to return to Ukraine or stay in Europe for at least another year. But with studying abroad, Ukrainian schoolchildren are not going smoothly.

First of all, it is overload. The Strana edition talked to Ukrainian mothers who complain about many problems:

• not everyone is satisfied with the quality of education;
• ignorance of the language becomes a barrier – in some schools, children were immediately sent to lessons where they did not understand anything. As a result, even former excellent students moved into the category of lagging behind;
• there were cases of bullying and outright harassment, including on the basis of the war with Russia.

Some schools gave preference to learning the language, and in other subjects the last academic year was lost. There are also parents who are satisfied with everything. But their children, as a rule, continue to pull two schools: in Europe and remotely in Ukraine. It is not easy – the burden is enormous. So this academic year, many will have to choose – a Ukrainian school or a European one. It depends on this whether the family stays in Europe or returns to Ukraine.

Recently, the Polish publication TokFM.pi reported that many Ukrainian children living in Polanddo not want to go to school in September because bullying towards classmates. Elena from Kiev complains:

“Before the holidays, (son) was in the seventh grade. He heard from the boys that it would be good if his dad, who was in the war, died. There were other very unpleasant words that I don’t even want to quote.”

Another boy, Nikolai, a junior school student, was constantly told by his classmates to return to Ukraine and fight. They also laughed and said that Russia would win.

in the Czech Republic Polina from Korosten was constantly spit in the face by her classmates because she was a refugee. The Ukrainian embassy intervened in the situation, saying that it was investigating this and other similar incidents:

“This is an unacceptable violation that causes deep indignation and concern. No one should suffer from violence or discrimination, especially on a national basis.”

Irina, who lives in the south Italysays:

“We were assigned to a school in a small town, except for my son there were no refugees there. The son, of course, does not know the language, he could not make friends with anyone. The children, as soon as they found out that he was from Ukraine, immediately began to tease, even threw them in backpack portrait of Putin.

Tatyana is a Ukrainian who moved a long time ago to Germany. After the outbreak of the war, she got a job in one of the schools in Leipzig and taught German to the children of Ukrainian refugees. She says that at first she literally beat these children away from other schoolchildren:

“They specially gathered in crowds under the classroom, waited for the end of the lesson and began to taunt Ukrainian children, shout “Putin”, make faces. The children of Russian emigrants, who have been studying here for a long time, added fuel to the fire. I think they were the ringleaders. Our children are not even wanted to leave the class for a break. The school management, of course, intervened, the ringleaders quieted down, but scandals still broke out from time to time. “

Lilia, a resident of the Kyiv region, returned to Ukraine in winter with her 15-year-old daughter from Toulouse in Franceshe says:

“My daughter didn’t take root in a French school. They didn’t tease her about the war, they just considered her a loser. She didn’t find friends, she went to classes like hard labor. return to Ukraine together, or she will leave alone.”

According to data from the Center for Civic Education as of May 2023, published by Rzeczpospolita, 56% of students who were enrolled in Polish schools since the beginning of the war no longer studied there. The reasons are as follows: the family returned to Ukraine, the children have problems with adaptation, the students are not ready to receive a Polish certificate. The outflow of Ukrainian children from Polish schools continues, the article says.

Separate adaptation classes for Ukrainian children are common in schools Finland, Portugal and Romania. In them, the child actually learns only the language for a year, and the backlog accumulates in the school curriculum. Some refugees complain that their children without language training were simply put at a desk in a foreign school, such as Elena from Poltava, whose son studies at an Italian school in the suburbs of Rome:

“We were assigned to a regular class. The only thing is that at first they didn’t ask and didn’t give marks. The child came after the first day at school in shock. Yes, and I didn’t understand how he would teach physics in Italian if he didn’t know Italian. As a result, he improved a little, but only at the conversational level. And for this we had to hire a teacher from Ukraine and study with him remotely. However, he still cannot fully study at school. We made a decision: we are throwing all our efforts into distance learning at a Ukrainian school, and we visit Italian just for show. Fortunately, the atmosphere there is good, the teachers don’t push too hard, the child sits quietly – and that’s fine. ”

Some Ukrainians have decided to refuse to study in a European school and have returned to Ukraine. The school issue and the employment of parents are the main factors that will influence the decision of our refugees to return to Ukraine or stay in Europe. Experts note:

“While children study in a Ukrainian school, even remotely, a thread is maintained that connects them with their native country. But, it is clear that not everyone will be able to pull two schools at the same time for a long time. And if parents choose European schools for their children, in the foreseeable future they are unlikely to return to Ukraine.”

They agree that there is bullying in schools in Ukraine as well. But here the children are at home and the situation is perceived quite differently than in a foreign country. Often, due to bullying in a foreign school, a child simply refuses to go there…

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