Minister hails 'extraordinary' welcome in Irish schools for Ukrainian children

Education Minister Norma Foley with AMCSS/JMB  president Deirdre Matthews and general secretary John Curtis at the AMCSS/ JMB annual conference in Killarney. Picture: Don MacMonagle

The welcome in Irish schools for Ukrainian children “has been nothing short of extraordinary", Education Minister Norma Foley told Catholic school principals at their annual conference in Killarney on Thursday.

Just short of 4,000 schoolgoing children and teenagers have arrived in Ireland, and are at a variety of institutions, including both co-educational and single-sex schools. However, some have not felt able to join the school system yet.

We have made significant resources available and additional hours,” said Ms Foley.

The minister was given a warm welcome by the more than 300 at the Joint Managerial Body/Association of Management of Catholic Secondary Schools Deis seminar, in the five-star Hotel Europe.

Tutors of English through the Department of Higher Education are to be deployed to help not just children but also their parents, Ms Foley said.

She said it was her experience, having met many Ukrainians, that older children had good levels of English. However, many of the adults did not, and tutoring would be made available in schools and “from a family and community approach” to include everyone.

Education Minister Norma Foley with AMCSS/JMB president Deirdre Matthews at the AMCSS/JMB annual conference. Picture: Don MacMonagle

Some of the schoolgoers were in line to finish their schoolwork in Ukraine and to sit exams, and while many of the children here were attending school, “some are not,” the minister said.

She said that this was because every child takes time to make the transition.

“It has been nothing short of extraordinary how welcoming schools have been,” she said.

Asked if the flag-waving was excessive in the school environment — some schools held Ukrainian flag days and many prominently displayed the Ukrainian flags —and if it was upsetting for Russian children already in Irish schools, the minister said the Ukrainian colours had simply been “a gesture”.

All our children are welcome in school as a place of safety and welcome,” said Ms Foley.

Speaking of the different experiences between the Ukrainian school system and the Irish, Adrian Gibbs, the principal of North Presentation Farranree in Cork, said it had come to his attention that wearing a school uniform was one of the strangest experiences for the refugees.

A number of other teachers at the conference said it was their experience that the maths skills of students from Ukraine were very good, and generally exceeded those of Irish students.

Co-education, mixed-gender schools seemed to be the norm in Ukraine, and some of the children found the single-sex school system here strange, some also said.