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Dear Leo
I send you information about children refugee in ITALY and other European countries, in my country there is a great attention and more women help children disadvantage that suffered cause war.
Rosa Dalmiglio
Italy
Published: Rosa Dalmiglio. Children refugee in ITALY and other European countries:
http://peacefromharmony.org/?cat=en_c&key=829
29-05-18
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Italy Overall • Asylum seeker children are usually rapidly enrolled in formal education. However, unaccompanied minors typically face more administrative hurdles and they risk waiting for a longer time before they can continue their education. • Schools have the full autonomy to decide on the form and length of the eventual extra language and academic tuition to support newcomer children catching up with their missing school period. This could allow for flexible and individualised measures, but in practice schools still often lack trained staff and funds to give the necessary catch-up support for refugee children. • Education statistics are only available on the situation of foreign children in the Italian education system, but there is no possibility to monitor the educational integration and attainment of children beneficiaries of international protection. Asylum seeking and refugee children and the Italian school system in general All children, regardless of their legal status, have the same right to education than their Italian peers, for all levels of education : • Parents can enrol their children between the ages of 3-6 in the nearby public state run kindergartens for free, but places are usually very limited. • School is compulsory for children between the ages of 6-16. Children attend 5 years of elementary schools, followed by 3 years of lower secondary education in the middle schools, after which pupils need to take an exam. Pupils can continue their studies for five years in a high school, technical institute or professional institute or they can enrol for three years in a regional vocational training programme. only the first two years of upper secondary education is still obligatory in all of these cases. • Above the compulsory school age, children have a “right-duty” to education and professional training, and have to obtain a diploma or a professional qualification (Grigt, 2017, p. 13). There is a special system of Provincial centres for adult education and training (CPIA) targeting specifically foreign citizens above the age of 16, typically unaccompanied minors, who do not yet have a middle school certificate and who need to prepare for passing this specific exam. Refugee children in compulsory school age - In law and policy Asylum seeker children in compulsory school age need to be enrolled as soon as possible and schools have the duty to accept children from their area. Newcomer children are directly enrolled in mainstream education and there are no separate immersion classes foreseen at national level. The Ministry of Education published guidelines on the integration of migrant pupils encouraging language, educational and psycho-social support, but schools have the autonomy to decide on the specifically available support services. Asylum seeker and refugee children are placed in the class that corresponds their age, but exceptionally school boards can make a different decision and place them at a different class level. The Ministry of Education’s guidelines clarify that in such case children should be enrolled in the class one below or above their age in order to limit the age difference among pupils, but this suggestion is not binding on schools. The Ministry of Education offers annually special funding for schools located in areas with significantly increasing immigration. Other funding possibilities for schools for the educational integration of asylum seeker and refugee children are project-based and their availability changes each year (Ibid., p. 30). 34 35 Refugee children in compulsory school age - In practice Among the 122.960 asylum applications in Italy, there were 11.170 claims coming from children under 18 years (Eurostat, 2017a). 6020 applications came from unaccompanied minors (Eurostat, 2017b). There is no further information about the exact number of asylum seeker children in compulsory school age, or the level of their school enrolment. Education statistics from the Ministry of Education are published on the situation of foreign students in the Italian education system (European Website on Integration, 2017), but it is impossible to draw conclusions specifically for the educational integration of children asylum seekers and beneficiaries of international protection, as the data includes for example EU-citizen children as well. The Ministry of Education dedicated extra funds for schools specifically for language and school integration support, but these do not seem to match the sudden increase in needs (Grigt, 2017, p. 30). Funding is also considered to be rather unpredictable (Ibid.). Enrolment in formal education seems to be rather swift and easy for the majority of asylum seeker children, staying both in the first line temporary reception centres (CAS) and in the second line SPRAR system. There are typically no administrative barriers, schools usually enrol newly arrived children even before the asylum application registration is finalised. Most of the schools are aware of the legal framework and their duties, but there are still few instances of refusing asylum seeker and refugee children’s school registration due to a lack of knowledge about their legal situation and about the national education integration guidelines. Enrolment might also be delayed when there is a lack of places, sufficient infrastructure or trained teachers. Newcomer children seem to typically attend classes one grade below their age. When these classes are full, children are sometimes assigned to even lower grades. Unaccompanied minors risk being out of education for a longer period than other asylum seeker children arriving with their families. The procedure to appoint a legal guardian can last for several months (Ibid., p. 17), making it significantly more difficult for minors to enrol in school and find their way through the Italian education system. Many of them rather continue their journey on their own to other EU countries with family and friends. The availability of extra language and educational support measures vary from school to school and there is no overview or coordination at national level about the implementation of the Ministry of Education’s integration guidelines. There is typically some support in every school, but these are implemented in a rather ad hoc manner. The availability and length of this additional support is largely dependent on project-based funding and many schools do not have the capacity to continuously look for extra short-term funds to maintain these services and offer them on a regular basis (Ibid., p. 30). Number of asylum applications from children in 2016 School system Responsible authorities Number of refugee children enrolled in education Legal deadline for enrolling asylum seeker children education Average time between asylum application and enrolment in education Separate immersion classes Legal right to equal treatment in education for refugee children Administrative barriers Placement in the compulsory school system Language support 11.170 Kindergarten: 3-6 years Compulsory school: 6-16 years Above the compulsory school age: “right-duty” to education and professional training National level: Ministry of Education Large autonomy for schools to implement the national legal framework No publicly available data 3 months No data. Estimated to take place typically within a few days. No Yes No Based on the children’s age, decision by the school board. Depends on the school board’s decision. 36 37 The Netherlands Overall • While school enrolment might have temporarily been delayed at the peek of arrivals in 2015, children can currently easily and rapidly register at a school. Issues might arise rather with the continuity of education throughout the asylum procedure, as asylum seeker families change accommodations rather frequently. • Asylum seeker and refugee children in compulsory school age receive extra language and educational support for an extended period. This seems to be typically enough for pupils in primary school to catch up with Dutch children, but might slightly be short for secondary school pupils, especially to allow them to orientate towards higher academic level school tracks. • Detailed statistics are available about the educational situation of asylum seeker children, but children benefitting from international protection disappear within the larger category of third-country nationals and further data is missing to adequately monitor and assess their educational career. Asylum seeking and refugee children and the Dutch school system in general All children seeking and benefiting from international protection have legally the same right to education as their Dutch peers : • Children between 2,5 and 4 years can enrol in preschool, but this is not obligatory. Parents must pay a fee dependent on their income. The overall responsibility for organising preschool education lies with municipalities that also determine the details of the education programme and decide which children are eligible for preschool education. one of the important declared functions of preschool is ensuring that all children start primary school speaking at least some Dutch. • Education is compulsory between the ages of 5 and 16. The first year of primary education at the age of 4 does is not yetpart of the compulsory education system. Primary school then lasts until the age of 12, when pupils pass a national test and its results largely determine their further recommended academic track. They can continue their studies in three types of secondary educational institutions, lasting for four, five or six years. • Youngsters between the ages of 16 and 18 fall under the “qualification obligation”. They must attend education if they do not have a final diploma from a secondary education institution or for basic vocational education. Refugee children in compulsory school age - In law and policy Asylum seeker children in compulsory school age must be enrolled in education within 3 months. Newly arrived children who do not sufficiently master the Dutch language are firstly enrolled in an immersion class to learn the language, before they can transfer to mainstream classes. In primary education, there is no strict national criteria guiding the prior assessment and classification of pupils and these classes can be organised according to the age and/or Dutch knowledge of the newcomer pupils. On the first day of school children participate in an intake interview, which helps the school to get to know their education and family background better and to identify any eventual trauma-related issues. There seems to be no maximum legal cap on the length of the immersion classes, but funding is available for maximum two years following the arrival to the Netherlands. The principles for transferring children to regular classes can differ from school to school, as nation-wide criteria lack in this field. In secondary education, the so-called “international transition classes” have a more uniform approach towards the classification of students and classes are organised according to the different levels of expected education at the end of the immersion period. International transition classes are always part of mainstream secondary schools. Pupils go through a longer intake period based on which their individual objectives are elaborated. They have to achieve these specific academic and language objectives before transferring to mainstream classes. Extra funding is available for maximum two years after entering the country. The immersion classes, both for primary and secondary education, are organised in a systematic manner and receive a stable funding. When children transfer to mainstream education within two years from their arrival, schools continue to receive extra funding, which could allow for continued targeted support for refugee children in this period. 38 39 Refugee children in compulsory school age - In practice According to the statistics of the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers on 1 May 2017, 4264 asylum seeker children in compulsory school age received education, while 671 were registered to start classes and were transitioning from one school to the other. 677 asylum seeker children were missing from statistics, but the Agency underlines that this does not mean that they were not receiving any education. The discrepancy is rather due to data collection issues, such as delayed school administration or differences in name spelling (Centraal Orgaan opvang Asielzoekers, 2017). once recognised, children benefitting from international protection disappear within the larger category of thirdcountry nationals in national education statistics and further data is missing to adequately monitor and assess their educational career. Funding for newcomer children’s education has been on the rise, with the government recently extending the funding period from one year to two years. However, there is no overview about the exact use of this funding and it is not clear, how much money is spent for example on generally improving the school infrastructure and increasing the number of places and how much is dedicated for example specifically on language and catch-up tuition. Asylum seeker children are typically registered in school within 6 weeks after arrival. The enrolment procedure currently seems to be fairly easy, without any major delays or significant administrative barriers. However, at the peak of arrival, before summer 2016, the Dutch system was also faced with a serious lack of accommodation for newly arrived families, which contributed to a larger delay in school enrolment. Newcomers at primary school enrol in one of the approximately 200 special classes available nation-wide (Tudjman, van den Heerik, Le Pichon, & Baauw, 2016, p. 13). These classes are typically organised separately within the mainstream school infrastructure according to the age and Dutch language-level of the children, but classes in some schools are more mixed and children with different language knowledge attend the same class. Pupils are transferred to mainstream education when their language proficiency is deemed to be sufficient, typically after 1 year, to the class corresponding the best to their age. The availability of extra language and educational support will then vary from school to school. In secondary education, approximately 100 international transition classes are established for newcomers (Ibid, p. 16). Most of these classes seem to be inserted within VMBO schools and only few of them form part of a school community providing for a wider range of academic tracks. Hence, their placement might risk of rather orienting asylum seeking and refugee children to lower level educational tracks. Pupils typically spend a longer time in these classes and often remain for 2 years before they transfer to a mainstream class, as at this age they usually need to catch up on both wider language and academic gaps (Ibid.). While the first assessment and later on the transfer should primarily consider the previous educational level and future aspirations of the pupils, recommendations seem to be still overwhelmingly based on the level of Dutch knowledge, risking again to orientate newcomer children to lower level academic tracks (Onderwijsraad, 2017). The accommodation arrangements under the Dutch asylum system have a particularly negative impact on the school career of newly arrived children. Families must often move homes throughout the asylum procedure and as the assessment procedures can vary from school to school, different schools might evaluate differently young children’s prior knowledge, which disrupts the continuity in the educational integration process. Number of asylum applications from children in 2016 School system Responsible authorities Number of refugee children enrolled in education Legal deadline for enrolling asylum seeker children education Average time between asylum application and enrolment in education Separate immersion classes Legal right to equal treatment in education for refugee children Administrative barriers Placement in the compulsory school system Language support 6230 Preschool: 2.5-4 years Compulsory school: 5-16 years Above the compulsory school age: qualification obligation National level: Ministry of Education Large autonomy for municipalities and schools to implement the national framework No publicly available data 3 months 6 weeks Yes Yes No Based on intake interview or intake period according to the age, prior knowledge and the student’s future aspirations. Yes 40 41 Sweden Overall • Sweden has a stricter time limit of for school enrolment than the current EU standard and children are typically enrolled within this deadline in practice as well. However, at the peak of arrivals, exceptionally 3-6 months delays occurred. • Sweden has a strong and favourable legal and policy environment able to provide for the specific needs of refugee children, which is implemented in practice as well. The major challenge is to keep the good teacher-student ratio, which enables the implementation of this string support system. • Data gaps on national level makes it difficult to monitor and review national policy and budget specifically on refugee integration. Asylum seeking and refugee children and the Swedish school system in general All asylum seeker and refugee children have the right to attend preschool, compulsory school and upper secondary school: • The Swedish education system offers places in preschools for children above the age of one and all children above the age of three have the right to attend preschool for free at least 525 hours per year. • Compulsory school age starts with the first grade at the age of 7 and ceases after ninth grade at the age of 15. However, the law does not oblige asylum seeker children to attend compulsory education. • After having completed the compulsory school years, children are entitled to upper secondary school education. Refugees have the right to enrol if they start their upper secondary school studies before the age of 20, while this age is limited to 18 years for asylum seekers. Refugee children in compulsory school age - In law and policy Asylum seeker children need to be offered a place in a school within one month of their arrival by the responsible municipality. Newcomer children are firstly enrolled in separate immersion classes focusing on their Swedish language tuition and they are transferred to regular classes as soon as possible. Pupils can continue to partially follow these immersion classes next to the regular ones for a maximum period of 2 years. Improving newly arrived asylum seeker and refugee children’s placement in the school system has been at the forefront of legislative and policy interests in Sweden. A new law has recently entered into force making it mandatory to carry out a thorough, individualised assessment of each newly arrived students’ prior knowledge within two months. The Swedish National Agency for Education have developed nation-wide criteria, guidelines and toolkits to support municipal schools in the mandatory assessment processes and the Swedish government made extra funds available for schools to be able to carry out this extra responsibility. Separate assessment guidelines have been developed by the Agency for groups of special concern, such as unaccompanied minors, victims of violence, torture, abuse or other forms of trauma, minors with disabilities and minors arriving above the compulsory school age. Asylum seeker and refugee children receive extensive support to succeed in education and find the most suitable education fitting their profile and aspirations. They have the right to continued Swedish language support and Swedish as Second Language is a subject offered throughout the compulsory schooling and above. Municipalities also had the opportunity to apply for extra funds to organise additional language classes, outside of the standards curriculum, for maximum four semesters. Additionally, if newcomer children are unable to entirely follow the classes in Swedish, they have the right to study guidance in their own language. The overall aim of the strong support measures is to offer each child the possibility to fulfil their potential and encourage them to have high educational aspirations. The Swedish National Agency for Education allocates the budget to municipalities for the local organisation of education. Extra educational funds were recently made available for municipalities with a high number of newcomer children and the Swedish government also announced a new investment programme for 2017-2015 to support municipalities in including 42 43 newcomer children in their schools (Bunar, 2017, p. 5). Municipalities are then responsible to allocate these funds according to the local needs, including the integration of asylum seeker and refugee children. Refugee children in compulsory school age - In law and policy Sweden saw a record number of asylum applications in 2015, when approximately 70.000 children requested asylum in the country. The number of applications then significantly decreased in 2016, when 10.000 minors applied for asylum. 22.059 asylum seekers were enrolled in compulsory schooling in the school year 2016/2017 in Sweden, but there is no nation-wide data available about the number of refugees, who get lost in the overall statistics on foreigners in Swedish education. 156.711 children in primary and lower secondary education received study guidance in their own language and 108.087 took Swedish as Second Language, but this data includes all foreign pupils. Information lacks about the overall size of the budget specifically tagged and/or used for educational support for refugees within the budget available for municipalities for refugee integration. State budget for integration has generally been on the rise and through the government’s new initiative municipalities will be allocated 2.138 million SEK for the 2017- 2025 to improve the educational infrastructure for newcomers. However, in the absence of detailed data on the specific use of these funds it is yet unclear how these efforts are really matching the size of the challenge. Newly arrived asylum-seeking children seem to be enrolled in the education system fairly quickly and easily. National statistics are not available on the average time between the asylum application and school enrolment, but children are typically registered within the 1-month legal time limit. Still, enrolment depends heavily on the municipal capacity and some municipalities reported longer enrolment periods and delays after the increase in the number of arrivals in 2015 and 2016. Newly arrived children are quickly transferred from separate immersion classes to regular classes, typically within a few months. They are supported with native language study guidance and Swedish as Second Language courses in practice as well. While it would be too early to assess the education attainment of the children arriving after 2014, previous research found that many refugee children could reach higher education (Crul, 2017, p. 8). The challenge for Sweden is to uphold this strong support system and increase the number of teachers matching the growing number of newcomer children. Even though the teacher-students ratio is currently satisfactory, there is in general a lack of teachers in the country and in particular, a lack of second-language teachers, which might risk the stable continuity of support measures in the future. Number of asylum applications from children in 2016 School system Responsible authorities Number of refugee children enrolled in education Legal deadline for enrolling asylum seeker children education Average time between asylum application and enrolment in education Separate immersion classes Legal right to equal treatment in education for refugee children Administrative barriers Placement in the compulsory school system Language support 10.875 Preschool: from 1 year Compulsory school: 7-15 years Above the compulsory school age: attending upper secondary school is an entitlement National level: Swedish National Agency for Education Main responsibility for education lies at municipality level No publicly available data 1 month No publicly available data. Typically within legal deadline.. Yes Yes No Based on a mandatory individualised assessment. Yes 44 45 Turkey Overall • As a new country of asylum, Turkey faces an enormous challenge to substantially improve its legislation, policy and practices on refugee education. Turkey does not yet offer an explicit legal right to equal treatment in education for children seeking or benefitting from international protection and children have to face major legal, administrative and practical barriers to continue their studies in formal education. • Newcomer children are not supported in a systematic manner to learn the language and catch up with the Turkish curriculum. NGOs and international organisations are trying to fill these gaps in educational support, especially in terms of Turkish language education. • Many of the processes and support are organised in an informal and ad hoc manner, making it difficult to have an overview about the educational situation of newly arrived children. Asylum seeking and refugee children and the Turkish school system in general Children seeking or benefiting from one of the various protection statuses in Turkey have the right to education, but Turkish legislation does not offer an explicit legal right to equal treatment in education: • Pre-school is optional for children between 3-5 years. Places are typically scarce and concentrated in larger towns and cities. Pre-school activities are organised in an ad-hoc manner in (temporary) accommodation centres, where only a small fraction of applicants and beneficiaries are accommodated, and they are provided typically by NGOs. • Compulsory school age starts with the first grade at 6 years and ceases at the age of 18 years after the twelfth grade. 4 years of primary school education is followed by 4 years of lower secondary school and 4 years of upper secondary school (general, vocational or technical high schools). Refugee children in compulsory school age - In law and policy There seems to be no legal deadline for school enrolment of children seeking or benefitting from international protection in Turkey. In principle, children in compulsory school age from all protection groups must immediately be placed in the mainstream Turkish public education system. Children who have missing certificates about their prior education career need to go through a grade placement test organised by the Provincial or District Education Commission. The parallel system of temporary education centres for Syrian refugee children still exists, but according to Turkish legislation they cannot enrol new pupils from the 2015/2016 school year and they need to be gradually phased out. Children RosaDalmiglio
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