Integrating Immigrant Children into Schools in Europe

Chapter 4 – Measures for the Integration of Immigrant Children at SchoolBelgium (BE de): So that immigrant pupils in a transitional class can be properly prepared for integration, it may bedecided that, for part of the timetable, some of them attend mainstream classes with pupils of their age.Czech Republic: Schools are not obliged to offer assistance with learning the Czech language to immigrant pupils inmainstream classes who are not the children of asylum-seekers, but this occurs in practice. The separate modelapplies only to the children of asylum seekers.Estonia: These measures relate mainly to immigrant children of Russian mother tongue who are enrolled in schoolsor classes in which the language of instruction is Russian (for at least 60 % of the curriculum). In such cases, thechildren concerned have to learn Estonian from the first year of school onwards.Ireland: A small number of schools with large proportions (over 20 %) of non-national pupils choose to run‘initiation/immersion’ classes in which children spend most of their time joining their mainstream peers for the leastlanguage-dependent subjects, in the weeks immediately following enrolment. As their English language skillsimprove, they are integrated into mainstream classes for all subjects and continue to receive language support on awithdrawal basis for up to two years.Latvia: There are no specific school-based support measures for immigrant children in mainstream schools.Nevertheless, children from Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, Hebrew, Lithuanian, Estonian, Romany and Belorussianlanguage minorities can receive education in those eight languages alongside Latvian.Austria: Pupils may receive this special support following temporary withdrawal from their regular class, or from asupport teacher working alongside the class or subject teacher. Only in rare cases, which need the consent of theFederal Ministry, is it possible to set up special classes for pupils who are newcomers to Austria.Poland: Implementation of the measures described in the Figure is under way (legislation came into force in May2004).United Kingdom: The Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 enables the Government to set upaccommodation centres for some destitute asylum seekers and their families while their claims are being processed.The intention is that education will be provided in these centres.Norway: With effect from June 2004, pupils in primary and lower secondary education whose mother tongue is notNorwegian are entitled to separate education in Norwegian until they are sufficiently proficient in the language tofollow mainstream teaching in it at the school concerned. In appropriate cases, the same pupils are also entitled tomother tongue education, content and language integrated learning, or both these forms of provision.In the integrated model, the education authorities give priority to integrating immigrant childrenimmediately in their corresponding mainstream class for normal provision with other pupils of their age.However, the decision to allocate pupils to the class below the one meant for children of their age mayalso be taken, subject to an initial assessment of their language proficiency (in the language ofinstruction) or their general performance at school (see section 4.2), or both. Within this context,measures for individual – or less frequently collective – support (involving withdrawal of these pupilsfrom mainstream lessons devoted to the language of instruction) may be planned during normal schoolhours. In general, the immigrant pupils concerned receive special assistance to help them overcome theirlanguage-related problems and, to a lesser extent, their more general difficulties (weaknesses in otherareas of the curriculum).Figure 4.3 also shows that in many cases the integrated model exists side by side with the separate‘transitional’ model. In the latter, ‘reception’ or ‘transitional’ classes or groups are formed regularly forthe benefit of immigrant pupils who are newcomers to the country, for a period that varies but isgenerally no longer than the first school year spent in the host establishment. These classes aim to offerassistance to the children concerned which is focused on their special needs (and particularly theirlinguistic needs) and to facilitate their gradual integration into the host education system.The organisation of separate groups or classes for longer than a year is much less widespread. Severalcriteria (the proportion of immigrant pupils, concerns related to teaching, asylum seeker status, etc.) maybe considered when setting up such groups or classes. For example, if the proportion of immigrant pupilsin a mainstream class in Germany is over 20 %, special classes may be formed solely for the childrenconcerned. This provision may be at different levels (basic, advanced or for support) depending on the43