As he said, "after the meeting last week and meeting with the Ukrainian Ambassador in Cyprus, I was informed about what exactly is happening with Ukrainians leaving their homeland."
He added that "we have an action plan to welcome those children who come from Ukraine,they will be integrated into schools and initially they will be prepared with language teaching and basic elements of the social environment, like all children coming from foreign countries, so that they can be integrated into the school system."
The Education Minister said that "on this occasion we will also be able to implement some reforms that we were already considering, taking advantage of the summer months."
He explained that "until now it was an omission that, for children of migrant background, who have to become familiar with the language in order to participate on equal terms in school, there was no programme to make use of the summer months but there was a break in their programme from June to September and especially for children who joined the system in April or May, this was a real paradox".
"From the next school year, with the creation of reception classes, we will be able to support all children," Prodromou said, noting that "especially for the children from Ukraine, we discussed with the Ambassador and we welcome the idea of welcoming Ukrainian teachers among the Ukrainians who decide to come to the country."
He added that "we will be in consultation with the Embassy and, if we have Ukrainian teachers, we will use them in our schools to facilitate the integration and reception of children from Ukraine."
As the Education Minister said, "these children not only have a migrant biography but also come from a particularly traumatic experience and I will reiterate that Cyprus, beyond humanity and principles of justice, has an additional role as a peer".
Finally, he stated that "in Cyprus we already have unaccompanied children of migrant biography and in the case of unaccompanied children from Ukraine we will particularly contribute to their psychological support" in cooperation with the Cyprus-Ukraine Association.
Source: CNA
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