Facts: Four out of ten Ukrainian children in Swedish schools
Children and young people who fled from Ukraine to Sweden due to the war are offered Swedish schooling. This is voluntary, the children are not required to attend school.
According to the National Agency for Education’s situation picture, which was published on 23 May, almost four out of ten (38 percent) of Ukrainian children have been enrolled in Swedish schools.
The situation is based on information from 21 of the largest recipient municipalities. The average in the municipal group was thus 38 percent, but the proportion varies greatly between the municipalities.
On May 30, just over 10,000 Ukrainian children and young people aged 6-19 were enrolled in the reception system in all municipalities in Sweden.
If the situation continues to be correct, shortly before the summer holidays, it would mean that approximately 4,000 Ukrainian children and young people are enrolled in Swedish schools.
Sources: National Agency for Education, Swedish Migration Board
Downstairs in Norberg’s municipal office, two meeting rooms have been converted into classrooms. The average age in the austere granite building has been lowered significantly, because in the classrooms about 25 children aged 6-15 are taught. Children who have fled Ukraine and are to be admitted to a Swedish school.
On this particular day, students in middle and high school age struggle with the Swedish words for different body parts. Singular and plural. Pronunciation. Spelling. There is a lot to fall into place, the concentration is palpable and the teacher duo Kerstin Nordlund and Melsi Bagakashvili pilot and translate respectively.
– We have one, but the cow has four…? asks Kerstin Nordlund.
– … stomachs? answers one of the students.
– Yes! Stomachs! There you have it!
Why the cow has four stomachs is not being investigated at the time, but Kerstin Nordlund states that the group often gets on the sidelines.
– The children need a lot, and we try to give them a broad orientation – such as where to call if you end up in an emergency, where to ride a bike, what the king and queen look like and who gave the name to “Thursday”.
Listen to Swedish. Speak Swedish. Write Swedish. Middle- and high school-age students expand their vocabulary every day. Kerstin Nordlund and Melsi Bagakashvili explain and interpret. Speak emotions
The room next door houses the students of primary school age. They will soon have mathematics, but first they talk emotions with the teacher Nataliya Melnyshyna. The children tell in Ukrainian, she listens and confirms, sneaks in the Swedish words. “Happy” returns several times, that’s how the children feel when they come to school, meet friends.
– The children did not know each other before, but they have found each other here. I think the school is a great security for them, says Nataliya Melnyshyna who has a Ukrainian teacher education and has lived in Sweden for eleven years.
Evangelina Slutska, six years old, likes math. At school, they practice counting to a hundred, in Swedish. And to add. And subtract.
Teaching for Ukrainian students began after the Easter break, two months after Russia’s invasion. All the children fled – with their relatives – in the early stages of the war.
– Some have heard the sounds of bombings and seen combat vehicles. Some have also been in shelters, says Melsi Bagakashvili.
Despite the children’s experiences, and despite the children’s new school in Norberg being set up in a minimum of time, she and her colleagues agree that everything has fallen into place. The work team is interplayed and the children seem to have landed in their new everyday life.
– We have made progress and we think that the children feel better now. It has been an emotional process and an educational process, says Melsi Bagakashvili and states that she feels like an extra parent for the children.
Russian and English
Her role is to interpret from Swedish to Russian, which works well – most children are Russian-speaking as they come from eastern Ukraine where Russian has a strong position. The children who speak Ukrainian understand Russian very well.
English also serves as a language bridge for the older students. If they do not find the word in Swedish, they can express themselves in English. And with the teaching of English in Ukraine, they have also learned the Latin alphabet.
– In my group, we have to start from the beginning – those who are six years old do not know much, so the journey will be longer, says Nataliya Melnyshyna.
School principal Ingrid Nord hurries between the meetings in the town hall. But she has also moved in at some point and taught the Ukrainian students, who are in the same house. Coming – and moving
The fact that the Ukrainian primary school children were placed in the town hall has two explanations. There were more children than had been announced and the school was already overcrowded. But the school management also wanted to create some peace of mind for all students, explains school principal Ingrid Nord.
– We already have a large reception in Norberg, with 300 places for asylum seekers. It’s a rotation on the kids in that group, unfortunately. They come, have to stay for a while and then the Swedish Migration Board moves them elsewhere. It is moved in and out of the classes, which affects everyone, she says.
The newly arrived students who stay in Norberg for a while already know some Swedish and can therefore be placed in regular classes. But the Ukrainian children would start from scratch, so the solution had to be their own premises and their own teachers. However, lunch and lunch breaks are located at the nearby Källskolan, an F-3 school, where at least the younger students can find new friends.
Time for lunch in Källskolan – one of the municipality’s two primary schools – which is only a couple of minutes walk from the town hall.
Like many other municipalities, Norberg became aware that it is difficult to recruit staff who speak Ukrainian or Russian.
– We had an eternal trip, states Ingrid Nord.
Two Norberg pensioners, one of whom has a teacher background, complete the work team half a week each.
– We are very grateful that they show up. It was the same in 2015, when so many new arrivals arrived at once. Even then, we could tie up retired teachers. It is an advantage with the small municipality – there is a great commitment and people know each other, says Ingrid Nord.
Autumn with question marks
The headmaster thinks, just like the teachers, that they have succeeded well based on the conditions. The children have been given a linguistic foundation that they can hopefully build on during the summer.
But how it will be in the autumn, no one can answer. A number of Ukrainian families will be offered a place in other municipalities, something Norberg does not control.
– The children know that they may be moved, but when and where they do not know, says Nataliya Melnyshyna.
– The anxiety has spread, and we have also noticed that, says Kerstin Nordlund.
For a casual visitor, the anxiety is not noticeable, the younger children seem to be full of the present. Eight-year-old Angelina Slutska makes it clear that she wants to learn many words in Swedish so that she can talk to the Swedish children. Little sister Evangelina, six years old, bounces in her chair when she tells her that she is learning to skateboard.
Siblings Sofia and Dennis Bulich went to eighth and ninth grade respectively in their hometown of Zhytomyr before the war closed the school. Now they are taught in the municipal office in Norberg.
Siblings Sofia and Dennis Bulich, 14 and 15 years old respectively, say that they feel “as usual”.
– But, Dennis continues, the Swedish Migration Agency has said that we must leave Norberg and that our mother should find a job. It makes us a little sad that we have to move, we feel safe here in Norberg.
The family trio – the father is still in Zjytomyr – has made friends in Norberg and the siblings are making an effort to get into the Swedish language. Both’s dream is to study further but they are well aware that all schools in their home country are closed.
– My dream was to study at university and then work abroad, maybe in Germany or Sweden. I could not imagine that I would come to Sweden as a refugee, says Dennis.
When asked what they will do this summer, the answer will be:
– We will continue to study Swedish, at home. And then we will help our mother find a job.
The work team Nataliya Melnyshyna, Kerstin Nordlund and Melsi Bagakashvili.