MEPs: EU Faces New Education Challenge in Integrating Refugee Children

Bratislava, May 19 (TASR) - The EU's response to the Ukrainian crisis was prompt, but it remains to be seen whether it was also effective enough, and in this context there's a need to redirect more European financial resources into education, particularly into integrating Ukrainian children who fled with their mothers from the war, MEPs Lucia Duris Nicholsonova and Ivan Stefanec have concurred in their discussion on TASR TV.

"We know that the overwhelming majority of refugees coming [to European countries] from Ukraine are women and children, which is why education is key, as they, of course, want to study," said Stefanec. He believes that more can be done at the EU level by earmarking greater volumes of European money for this.
"Individual [EU] member states to which Ukrainian refugees have fled would, of course, be unable to withstand it financially ... The Union immediately released not an insignificant amount of resources - billions of euros that have been funneled to countries such as Slovakia," pointed out Duris Nicholsonova.

Education Ministry State Secretary Svetlana Sithova, also on the show, commended the EU's financial aid for integrating refugee children into Slovak schools. She underlined that this crisis has demonstrated the benefits of Slovakia's EU membership again, and also highlighted other spheres with which the EU helps, such as methodological aid for headteachers and teachers who work with children who speak foreign languages or suffer from mental trauma.

Headteacher of J. A. Komensky primary school in Sered Paulina Krivosudska contributed to the discussion with her personal experiences with integrating Ukrainian children. "Our students have received the Ukrainian children very positively, and I have no negative feedback to report. They've been helping them since the beginning ... Parents sent contributions for their textbooks even before the ministry did so, they brought the notepads we asked for, school bags and sweatpants, so these children could take whatever they needed. And then help from the ministry came as well," she added.