Teaching materials lie on a table in the "Welcome School TXL".
© dpa
A good 8,500 children and young people from Ukraine are currently attending school in Berlin.
Only a small number of them have a place at one of the two German-Ukrainian schools. At the Helene Lange Secondary School in Steglitz and the Aziz Nezin Primary School in Kreuzberg, there are a total of 130, as the education administration announced on the occasion of a visit by a Ukrainian delegation to Steglitz.
According to the education administration, lessons at the German-Ukrainian School in Steglitz are intended to make it easier for children and young people from Ukraine to start school in Berlin. However, it should also enable them to return to the school system in their home country as smoothly as possible. Accordingly, the school prepares students for the qualifications of the state of Berlin and also for possible Ukrainian qualifications in grades 9 and 11.
At the neighbouring Hermann-Ehlers-Gymnasium, there are also plans to offer a corresponding sixth form course for the other sixth forms. All three schools are part of the "German-Ukrainian School Berlin" programme. The project was agreed upon by the education administration and the Ukrainian Ministry of Education. It is to be expanded further. The delegation from Ukraine included Deputy Minister of Education Dmytro Zavgorodnii.
According to data from the education administration (as of 8 January), 8,551 pupils who have fled Ukraine are attending classes across Berlin. Almost a third of these (2,908) attend special welcome classes, which were set up for refugee pupils but are not limited to those from Ukraine. There are currently 300 school-age children and young people registered at the refugee centre on the site of the former Tegel Airport who attend a so-called welcome school. According to the education administration, a "welcome school" is also to be set up at the large refugee centre in Tempelhof.