Our colleagues from RTL spoke to Minister of Education Claude Meisch about the challenges of enrolling and integrating Ukrainian pupils into the national school system.
Close to 500 Ukrainian children and teenagers aged four to 20 are expected to have their first day of school in Luxembourg on Tuesday. That means that less than half of the refugees who already arrived in the Grand Duchy have been enrolled into the education system thus far.
Minister Meisch believes that although it will be a challenge, Luxembourg is ready to successfully integrate Ukrainians into the school system. He warned that the number will however increase in coming weeks: "We know of at least 1,200 pupils that are eligible for primary and secondary schools, and they will all be enrolled."
More than 500 pupils are still waiting for administrative procedures to be completed. The majority of cases involve people still living in temporary facilities and waiting for their final housing destination somewhere in the Grand Duchy.
The Independent Luxembourg Trade Union Confederation (OGBL) has already voiced concerns over whether Luxembourg will be able to adequately care for Ukrainian pupils. Minister Meisch seems determined: "We are already experienced as there are on average between 2,000 and 3,000 foreign pupils coming to Luxembourg each year. Even if there will be up to twice as many as now, we can still do it."
Minister Meisch underlined the advantage of having so many international public schools here in Luxembourg, which are specialised in integrating and educating foreign students.
Furthermore, the Chamber of Deputies has recently given the green light to adjusting hiring conditions. The politician from the Democratic Party elaborated: "This will make it easier to hire teachers from abroad, who may not be able to speak all the local languages as is usually required. This way we can get people with English degrees and even some who speak Ukrainian."
During the past two weeks, the recruitment procedure has been running at full pace and many qualified people have been hired, stressed Minister Meisch. It remains to be seen how many more children will come to Luxembourg from Ukraine, which means that everything has to remain ready, he concluded.
