'Ukrainian children in the Netherlands need rest first'
What happens to Ukrainian children who are taken in by host families? Here and there are initiatives to let these children go to school. “Everything is still messy.”
Image: Pixabay
English teacher Marina Godovalova-Lubberding is thinking and improvising at full speed. Together with other Ukrainians, she is setting up a school where Ukrainian refugee children can go. Most children, she thinks, will benefit most from starting their regular Ukrainian school program as soon as possible. “Most Ukrainians stay here temporarily, they want to return home as soon as possible, so it is not necessarily useful to send the children to a Dutch school. Then they will mainly be busy with the Dutch language and they will fall behind with their own program.”
The people arriving now have yellow faces from fatigue
Godovalova-Lubberding is not only an English teacher, but also director of the Skazka cultural center and language school in Amsterdam. Her whole family lives in Ukraine. They are safe, she says, but they cannot flee due to lack of fuel to reach the border by car. Her sister and nieces help the men make nets that they stretch across the street and distract the air force.
Godovalova-Lubberding meanwhile helps Ukrainians from Amsterdam. She is married to a Dutchman and has lived here for sixteen years. “We have teachers, volunteers and administrative staff.” What they need for their initiative is support from the government or the municipality to arrange a classroom or space. One school per big city is enough, she thinks.
Kiev
Another option, according to Godovalova-Lubberding, is to take online classes. “With a school program from Kiev, children can take lessons online. The concept is already there.” In Ukraine, the children also took online classes during the pandemic. “They are used to it,” says Godovalova-Lubberding. Pupils then mainly need technical support: an iPad and connection, and a room where they can sit quietly."
Air-raid siren
The online lessons cannot come from Ukraine, says Marina: “Because imagine that a teacher ends up in an air raid siren in the middle of the lesson.” Physical education is best, always has been, and especially now, believes Godovalova-Lubberding. It also provides the best distraction. “Children need education in their own language in the first place. In addition, they can also follow language courses in English and Dutch.”
There is a whatsapp group for practical matters: housing, a bank account and school
In Amsterdam, Godovalova-Lubberding already estimates about forty children who want lessons. In the center of Amsterdam, a hundred refugees will be accommodated in a hotel, which will also include children. “There are already many children in Almere, including small ones. The crèches are full, because it is also difficult for Dutch people to find a place in a crèche."
The Ukrainian mothers help each other there. "One mother takes care of all the children, so the others can do other things, such as register with the municipality." There will soon also be a need for daytime activities for children, Godovalova-Lubberding sees.
clean
A cleaning lady from Ukraine has been working in the household of Roos Labberton from Utrecht for years. Just before the war, she had returned to visit her family in Ivano-Frankivisk in western Ukraine. Last week she returned to Utrecht with her daughter and two grandchildren and a second Ukrainian family with grandmother, mother and two teenagers.
Neighbors of Labberton, some of them also have her as a cleaning lady, have united in a Whatsapp group to arrange accommodation as quickly as possible - which has now been successful - and other practical matters, such as a bank account and school. Roos: “The grandmother said that the two oldest children can help with the cleaning for the time being. Then we immediately said: No, it is better if the children go to school, to be with peers and to have distractions. Because this will not take two weeks, but probably longer.”
language school
The eldest children are enrolled in the international transition class Ithaka in Utrecht and the youngest at the Taalschool. “Now they have to wait three weeks for the intake,” says Labberton. “That takes quite a long time. What should the children do for the next three weeks?” The teenagers speak good English, they already interpret between grandma and the neighbours. The mother of the two teenagers is a doctor and is going back to Ukraine. A very exciting time for the children. Their parents - the fathers have already stayed there - are both at war, so distraction is welcome.
expats
Ithaka is an international transition class. The school management says it has immediately started working with the reports. Bram Donkers is spokesperson for Nuovo Scholen, the Utrecht public secondary education system that includes Ithaka, but also, for example, the International School Utrecht, for example for expats: “We want to provide all students with education, but there is a difference between children who are temporarily in safety here. and children that we prepare for Dutch society and the Dutch language. We have to look closely at that.” According to him, there is already a shortage of suitable school buildings in Utrecht. “But upscaling is possible,” he says, “now we're looking at how we can organize that exactly.”
Imagine that a teacher is caught in an air raid siren in the middle of class
The direction for this lies in the first instance with the municipalities. In the near future, many more Ukrainian children will report to schools. All children in the Netherlands have the right to (and duty to) education. This means that schools are obliged to facilitate a suitable educational offer for newcomers. Young Expat Services in Amsterdam, specialized in familiarizing expats in the Netherlands, has also received phone calls and says it will help the families as well.
Messy
“Everything is still messy at the moment”, says Marina Godovalova-Lubberding. “Everything is just getting started.” But she also thinks that many refugees need to catch their breath first. Yesterday she spoke to a XNUMX-year-old couple from Ukraine. The girl worked as a barista in Kharkow. “Her English is not that good yet, she speaks Russian and Ukrainian.”
Marina thinks it's good for her to start with English lessons, so that she can maybe work here in the hospitality industry. “But the people who are arriving now need rest first. They have yellow faces from fatigue. They have to recover, in the meantime we have the time to arrange everything, and then they can enroll in classes.”
Are you also concerned about the situation in Ukraine and do you want to know what the education and trade union situation is like in the country? Then follow this Friday afternoon the Education International online meeting† The union of education unions, where the AOb is part of it, therefore calls on educational staff to 'educate for peace'.
