No backpack, no notebook, no pencil case, not even a book. Even without knowing if he will be able to enter the class. With the same clothes with which she escaped from the Ukraine but with the intact desire to do experiments in class and practice rhythmic gymnastics again. This is back to school Mariya Panlichenkova and of the more than 200 refugee children who, in recent weeks, have joined the Ukrainian school in Barcelona after fleeing the war. This center, which every Saturday offers classes in Ukrainian for 200 children who were born or have migrated for more than a decade, can’t cope with the avalanche of requests. “It’s his way of going back a little to his life before, of being in a class that they understand,” says a teacher.
“I just told the janitor to close the door and not let any more families in,” he says with glassy eyes. Svetlana Shkolna, director of the Ukrainian school in Barcelona. It is approved by the Ministry of Education of Ukraine and every Saturday teaches children from 4 to 16 years old just as it is done in the Slavic country. They use the facilities of the Salvador Seguí institute, in the Sant Martí district of the Catalan capital, and until the outbreak of the war there were about 200 children who attended school every Saturday. Today there are more than 400, according to Shkolna’s calculations. “We can’t do more, refugee families come to us crying asking to enter but we don’t have more space”, Explain. At the moment the youngest children, from 4 to 6 years old, have moved to another facility to be able to attend to the remaining students. But in less than two hours the gaps have been filled again.
expecting mothers
The line of mothers waiting to be seen by the secretary demonstrates this. Among them are Alina Panlichenkova and her 8-year-old daughter Mariya. The family arrived in Barcelona just a week ago and commented on their experience, fears and dreams to EL PERIÓDICO from the makeshift space of the Red Cross. Now they live in a hotel in Comarruga (Tarragona) with the help of the humanitarian entity. The girl has been a month without going to school because of the bombings. I was going to second class, she says with the two fingers of her hands. “Two days ago he went to a school in Catalan, but I know that here you can feel at home“, recognizes the mother. It is not surprising. The books, the explanations of the teachers and the gossip of the classmates are all in their language.
welcome hugs
Two hours after queuing, the little girl opens the door of what will be her new Saturday class. She does it holding the teacher’s hand. The rest of the children in the classroom jump on him to welcome him. with a big hug. A ritual that brings Mariya’s smile back. “Before the war we were 9 children in the class, now we are 19”, he says Vladimir, one of the students. You can tell who the new ones are because they have borrowed school supplies. There is no glitter, no cartoons. Just a pen and a notebook. There are also no textbooks for them, since these are printed in the Ukraine and not one of the orders has arrived yet.
Yustina is one of the least shy in the classroom, and in less than two minutes she starts talking to Mariya. “The children who come from the war are very sad, that’s why we always give them hugs and play with them,” she explains. She then looks down at the ground. “But other kids in the class are too. There is one who has lost his father in the war. And my uncle has also died from the bombs“, he lets out with total sincerity.
The emotional state of the children at the center hangs in the balance. “Especially the little ones, who when they hear a siren get scared, they return to the bombardment. That is why we do not hesitate for a second to welcome refugee children free of charge. They need to return to normality and it helps them to go to school as before,” insists the director. Snizhana, a primary school teacher every Saturday and a hotel receptionist during the week, has also noticed this because she has not yet been able to homologate her degree in Spain. teacher. His classroom has also doubled.”Refugee children are in their world, very closed and nervous. They have suffered a lot and it is difficult for them to be comfortable again”, describes. Little by little he sees how they change. “There are children who have been here for three weeks and you can see how they are getting used to it, they like coming here more than school in Catalan because they understand everything,” she continues.
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The fourth class of ESO is one of the ones that has grown the most. It has gone from 8 students to 25. At noon it’s time for trigonometry. “At these ages they are the ones who are most nervous. Because as they do the selectivity here, it is going to condition the future a lot”, says the director, who is the one who teaches the class. Many find it hard to focus on the spreadsheet the teacher gives them. For example, Marta and Masha, two 16-year-old girls who have lived through the bombings in kyiv and Khartov. “If you ask me if I like it here, I tell you no, I don’t like it. I want to be in my school, with my friends… My life was fine. But I like this school, the teachers are good and the classmates too,” says Marta. The students have already exchanged mobile phones and meet during the week to encourage each other. “Me because I’m in class and I can’t accompany you but I tell you cool places to go in Barcelona, to get to know the city…”says Diana, one of the Barcelonans.
At four in the afternoon the doorbell rings. End of classes and back to routine. For some, the routine. For others, the new routine. That of going to the hotel, cleaning the few clothes they have with the bathroom faucet and living in a country where they practically do not understand a word of their language. But Mariya is happy. And also her mother. “He is so looking forward to coming back next week… I think it’s like having a little piece of what his life was like before”comment after picking it up.
What is the Ukrainian school in Barcelona and how does it work?
The Ukrainian school was born in 2010 out of the need and the will of an association of Ukrainian parents for their children to learn their mother tongue every Saturday. “For many it also serves as school reinforcement, because we don’t limit ourselves to teaching the language, we teach math, English, science…” explains the center’s director.
The project began in an Orthodox church in Barcelona, but as more children became involved in it, in 2012, it moved to the Turó de Roquetes institute, in Nou Barris. In 2018, the 200 students of the center moved to another institute in the city, the Salvador Seguí, in La Verneda. And there they continue to this day, despite the fact that the increase in refugee students has already implied another transfer for the little ones.
The school is financed solely and exclusively with the fees paid by families, which vary between 30 and 40 euros per month. However, the center is authorized by the Ukrainian International School and the Ministry of Education of Ukraine, and therefore, students who wish to do so can take the exams of the Slavic country and obtain their homologous teaching degree.
At the moment, the refugee children who enter the classroom do not pay any fees and the rest of the families are responsible for their schooling. It is also the family association that finances the school material that they need or will need. Although, due to the war, it is impossible to get the textbooks used in the center since they are edited and printed in the Slavic country.