Underprepared school system adapting to refugee challenge

Preparations for the new challenge of accommodating Ukrainian children in Faroese schools are far from complete.

The education ministry is finding itself needing to tie up plenty of loose ends before the school system can offer Ukrainian pupils the services they deserve.

“We have no prior experience with refugee pupils, so we are learning as we go,” says Eyðdis Ejdesgaard, an administration officer at the education ministry.

“We have set up a system involving lots of people from a wide variety of disciplines, and it is very clear that everyone is doing what they can. But we are struggling to coordinate these efforts.” 

 >> SEE ALSO Schools facing “huge challenge” with refugee children

Tvøroyri school is the first Faroese school to take in pupils from Ukraine.

“We are doing the best we can,” says school principal Jón Johannesen.

“We improvise based on what we’re observing in schools in our neighbouring countries. Our teachers are doing a fantastic job trying to adapt to this new situation.”

 >> SEE ALSO Ukrainian schoolbooks for refugee pupils

The education ministry is working flat out with schools and other institutions to create a structured system for refugee pupils, but it is not an easy challenge:

“We don’t know how many children will be coming, we don’t know what age groups and we don’t know which parts of the country they will be going to,” says Ejdesgaard.

“We have a lot of loose ends at the moment, but we are working on it.”

 >> SEE ALSO Refugee response plan taking shape

After some minor delays, a Faroese version of the Danish Emergency Act on refugee asylum is expected to be passed in Parliament next week.

The new law seeks to tie up some of the loose ends regarding schooling, residence, social rights, etc. for refugees.

Read the Faroese version of this article here.

More Faroese News in English.