More than 320,000 refugees, children and young people have come in the past two years at German schools. The teachers are often overwhelmed, not only amplification, but also in-service training is lacking.
Sibyl Clement, head of the Jahn school in Bonn. The primary school has approximately 280 students, including 25 refugee children who are new to Germany and the German language from zero to learn.
Although the school gets support and help from volunteers, has increased the trunk of the teachers. The number of trained teachers remained, despite the new challenge. You can lift everyday just because you can draw on a lot of experience and as a Team very well played. Also children with a migrant background. At the Jahn school are many – the great majority of pupils have a migration background, the parents, for example, come from Iraq, Morocco, Jordan, from different Central African countries, the Maghreb, Turkey or Syria.
“We have many children who come from Arabic or Kurdish families that explain to the newbies the most important things. So the children will feel less foreign than in a school in which the majority of the children are monolingual English growing up and only German ancestors,” explains Sibylle Clement.
Skilful handling of the Trauma and the Knowledge of the countries of origin are important prerequisites for the teacher
The Welcome Classes
Currently, a total of about 11 million pupils in Germany will be informed. The number of school-age children had declined steadily since 2001, but the influx of around 325,000 refugee children since the 2015 has the number slightly increase by 0.3 percent. The special needs are fugitive children, the German school system presents new challenges.
Many schools have increasingly set up so-called welcome classes, special classes for children and young people. Here the students should first learn the German language, and then soon the normal. In addition to language lessons, sports, music and art. However, small children learn, often together with significantly older refugees; differences in age and educational experience are far apart.
“Since the number of in-migration has declined significantly, but more calm, to take a closer look and decide which type of school the children need to come to us, and how they can be classified by the performance,” says Udo Beckmann, Chairman of the Association of education (VBE).
In welcome classes, younger students learn together, often with older
The decline in the numbers of Refugees have calmed down the situation. Nevertheless, Beckmann’s no all-clear, “The Situation in schools is but as it should be. The human resources are not available.” For years there had been often no Appointments for teachers, which had taken place in retirement.
Education and Training
To find new teachers is to get a challenge, but adequate training for the existing teachers. Marlis Tepe, Chairwoman of the trade Union of education and science, stresses that teachers must be prepared to work with refugee children.
“You need to know something about the countries of origin of children, and trauma education. And you have to deal with inter-cultural issues.” In your assessment, this still happens to little. “There is far too little in-service training are offered,” she says.
At the Jahn school in Bonn the teacher to collect the children, says Sibylle Clement. The children would have experienced for the part of Bad. “We treat them first, like all the other children. Of course, you get a lot more time and consideration, but otherwise, we try to offer you the normality of a regulated education process in a country that lives in peace.”