Saarland – media information – Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine: Minister of Education Streichert-Clivot on the integration of Ukrainian children and young people in Saarland

Around 2,800 Ukrainian children and young people now attend Saarland schools and are integrated into regular classes here.

Minister of Education Christine Streichert-Clivot explains: “Cohesion is a Saarland virtue. For us, it goes without saying that we pull together in crisis situations and join hands. So it doesn’t surprise me that the integration of Ukrainian children and young people in our schools works well overall. I am very grateful to the dedicated teams at our schools for this. It is a great achievement to admit and integrate around 2,800 children and young people into our school system within a short period of time. An end to the war in Ukraine is not in sight. It is therefore also clear that we as a state, in close cooperation with the municipal side, must deal with the increased needs in the long term and continue to invest in good integration and cohesion.”

Ukrainian students are integrated into regular classes in Saarland. As of February 17, 2023, 1092 students were admitted to primary schools, 24 to special needs schools, 1008 to community schools, 499 to grammar schools and 179 to vocational schools. 22 teachers and pedagogical specialists from Ukraine have been employed at Saarland schools since the beginning of the war. There are a total of around 120,000 students and 9,500 teachers in Saarland.

Also under the impact of the Ukraine war, the Saarland has strengthened the multi-professional teams at the schools. Together with the districts and the Saarbrücken regional association, the number of school social workers employed at general schools has doubled to around 220 since 2019. At the beginning of the 2022/23 school year, language support in schools was massively increased. To this end, the Ministry of Education and Culture has also brought around 220 language support teachers into the state service and significantly expanded language support – from 4,000 to 6,200 weekly hours for teachers. The established structures of the Corona catch-up program are also used in the interests of multi-professionalism. Saarland has replaced the federal and state program “Catching up after Corona for children and young people”, which expired in January, with its own state program. The Saarland catch-up program II has a total of 5.1 million euros. In addition, there are 1.5 million euros in state funds for increased school social work.

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