As of April 21, 11,588 pupils from Ukraine are welcomed in French schools. The Ministry of National Education recalls on its website the obligation to welcome these children and the equivalences between French and Ukrainian classes.
11,588 Ukrainian students educated in France
[Mise à jour du 22 avril 2022 à 11h22]. As of April 21, Ukrainian children are 11 588 to be educated in schools, colleges and high schools French, and this since February 24, according to the Ministry of National Education. 40% of these children are thus educated in elementary schools, 31% in colleges, 19% in kindergarten and 10% in high schools. These are the establishments of the cities Versailles (1110 children), Nice (1059 children), Grenoble (806 children), Lyon (640 children) and Créteil (635 children) which receive the greatest number of Ukrainian pupils.
“We are organized for this reception with crisis cells in each rectorate of France“, had indicated Jean-Michel Blanquer this March 15 during a visit to the elementary school Jean-Jacques Rousseau in Épinay-sur-Seine (in Seine-Saint-Denis), in the company of the First lady Brigitte Macron. Also , to enable Ukrainian students to integrate smoothly and their classmates to understand them better, teachers have access to educational resources to address the situation in Ukraine in the classroom.
French and Ukrainian levels of education: what correspondences?
On its website, the Ministry of National Education recalls that the education code guarantees access to education for all children aged 3 to 16 and the obligation of training for children aged 16 to 18 present in France. “Thus, any student newly arrived in France must be educated regardless of their nationality or personal situation.“, indicates the ministry which also gives information on the correspondences between the levels of French and Ukrainian education. primary school in Ukraine is organized in 4 levels which correspond to the classes of CP, CE1, CE2 and CM1 of the French system. Secondary is made up of levels 5 to 9 corresponding to classes from CM2 to the third year. Finally, upper secondary is made up of levels 10 and 11, which correspond to the second and first classes.
“The administrators of Cnaf have approved the free childcare for all the children of persons benefiting from temporary protection, such as those who have fled Ukraine. The Cafs, via the single service provision, will directly bear the cost of their reception”, specifies the National Family Allowance Fund in a press release of April 5, 2022. This surge of solidarity aims above all to better support and support families who have fled Ukraine to following their country’s armed conflict with Russia, this free reception in French crèches will also allow parents to concentrate on all the administrative paperwork, the search for accommodation, training or employment. Babies will also have the opportunity to better learn the French language, and to flourish in a secure and adapted environment.
Nurseries wishing to welcome Ukrainian children can “report their availability of places to the prefect of their department, who is responsible for receiving displaced persons from Ukraine, and approach the associations designated by the prefectures for the support of these families in order to promote their service offer “, specifies the Cnaf. Childcare establishments are also invited to make their service offer known on the internet platform.I am committed to Ukraine“.
How are Ukrainian pupils integrated into school?
Also, to allow Ukrainian students to integrate smoothly and their classmates to understand them better, teachers have access to educational resources to address the situation in Ukraine in the classroom. During this visit and through an interpreter, two Ukrainian pupils aged 8 to 10 said that they were “happy to be in this school” and to be able to “play football with the other children”. of their age. “We have a welcome experience in the languages of the children, in this case in Ukrainian, to know where they are, what is their level, how to welcome them psychologically”, added Minister of National Education, who recalls “the importance of preserving children as much as possible from the harshness” of the war in Ukraine. Brigitte Macron had meanwhile stressed that children were “welcome” in France. “The French will welcome them as they always do, with their hearts (…) We explained to them why, and how much we were with them” declared the wife of the President.