Berlin More than a hundred thousand school-age children have fled to Germany from Ukraine since the beginning of the war. This was reported by the Conference of Ministers of Education (KMK). This poses great challenges for the federal states and schools, because there has been a shortage of teachers for years. So far, the KMK assumes that there will be a shortage of almost 24,000 teachers by 2035.
In order to enable the integration of the Ukrainian refugees despite the shortage of teachers, Federal Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger (FDP) and the President of the KMK, Karin Prien (CDU), not only want to involve Ukrainian teachers, but also “digital formats from Ukraine should be used “.
Ukraine is way ahead of Germany when it comes to integrating digital solutions in the education sector. But German education start-ups have also started initiatives. Mike Shangkuan, CEO of the online language school Lingoda says: “The political side has not yet exhausted the potential.”
Thousands of Ukrainian children and young people across Europe are currently taking online classes. This often even takes place in their old classes and with their old teachers. This is possible with the help of Ukrainian Educational Technology, or EdTechs for short, such as the online school Optima, the online textbooks from Skhola or the learning platforms Numo and EdEra. EdTechs group together technology-oriented companies and start-ups that offer solutions, services and products in the field of learning and educational applications.
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Olga Filipova is co-founder of EdEra. She knows: “Before Corona, the Ukrainian government had already started to support digital and e-learning initiatives in Ukraine.” Because the Ukraine Ministry of Education also supports many of the EdTechs financially.
According to Filipova, the progress in digitization caused by the pandemic would have been considerable in Ukraine as well, but the conversion of teaching from analog to digital would not have been possible if the Ministry of Education had not promoted digitization in schools and universities for a long time.
No state funding for educational start-ups planned
Stephan Bayer, founder of Sofatutor, is impressed by the speed of the changeover: “While we are still discussing why the money from the digital pact is not being called up, digital schools are being set up elsewhere in just a few days.”
With the help of EdTechs, some refugee schoolchildren from Ukraine can still attend classes in their old classes.
(Photo: IMAGO/ZUMA Wire)
However, the founder rejects direct funding for education start-ups from the education ministries: “If there is financial support from the legislature, there is a risk that you will quickly end up with the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. He nationalized the textbook publishers and now determines the content.”
Targeted support for German EdTechs is also not planned by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). “However, we assume that many of the projects funded by the BMBF will ‘add on’ offers especially for Ukrainian refugees at very short notice,” says the ministry’s reply. According to Prien, “learning the German language and integrating it into the German school system” must be the common goal of all these efforts.
In addition to Sofatutor, language schools such as Babbel and the tutoring platform Tutorspace have also started initiatives for Ukrainian refugees. And the Brockhaus has also digitized its German-Ukrainian learning content and made it accessible free of charge to refugee schoolchildren in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate.
>> Read here: Tutoring company Gostudent: Europe’s most valuable education start-up valued at three billion euros
An example where cooperation between politics and educational start-ups is already working is the “Speak & Code Academy” initiative. In contrast to many other aid programs that have been started for Ukrainian refugees, the initiative is not purely a non-profit initiative. The academy is financially supported by the employment agency and combines the technical training of prospective programmers with the acquisition of language skills.
Businesses can help solve societal problems
The program was created by Lingoda in partnership with online non-profit university Kiron Higher Education and programming school Le Wagon. Mike Shangkuan believes, “Companies can be a powerful partner in solving societal problems.”
Targeted support for German EdTechs is not planned by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).
(Photo: dpa)
You yourself would have seen the potential of the numerous refugees through the long-standing partnership with Kiron: “On the one hand, we have people who want to develop further while fleeing the war. And on the other hand, we have a huge shortage of skilled workers in technical professions.” According to Shangkuan, this is an opportunity that must be seized. He thinks that the Speak & Code Academy is an example for further initiatives.
The education policy spokeswoman for the FDP parliamentary group, Ria Schröder, sees a need to catch up in the German education and training system overall when it comes to integrating digital solutions: “Digitization must be a long-term concept. That must not fizzle out again after a crisis.”
She does not want the state to intervene in the competition that is just beginning to develop on the education market: “It would make sense to set incentives and thus promote this start-up landscape as a whole.”
This should also be done by integrating digital concepts into teaching and training. However, this requires a “new form of cooperation between the federal government, the federal states, local authorities and school authorities”.
More: Ukrainian refugees are crowding into the schools