Integrating Immigrant Children into Schools in Europe

Chapter 4 – Measures for the Integration of Immigrant Children at SchoolEstonia, Spain, France, Latvia or Portugal, in all of which a major proportion of immigrant citizens speakthe language of instruction (or, if there is more than one, at least one of them).Generally speaking, linguistic tuition is based on a teaching approach to this language as a ‘second oradditional language’ (i.e. not the mother tongue of the pupils concerned). Meanwhile, in a few Nordiccountries (Finland, Sweden and Norway), as well as Estonia, Cyprus and Latvia, it is also possible to offerbilingual tuition in which teachers use both the mother tongue of immigrant pupils and their schoollanguage of instruction.As regards the amount of time earmarked for teaching immigrant pupils the host country language ofinstruction, major differences may be observed between countries, ranging from 2 to 14 hours (or classperiods) a week.The integration of children in pre-primary education is not often the subject of priority measures on thepart of the authorities concerned. However, quite recently a few countries have started programmes tointroduce very young children to the language of instruction before they begin compulsoryeducation. In Germany, these programmes are intended for children who were born in the country orwho came to it when they were very young indeed. Belgium (the Flemish community), Lithuania,Luxembourg and Norway also provide reception classes for these children to prepare them for theirtransition to primary school (especially in terms of language). The Czech Republic, Finland and Sweden (insome municipalities) run special groups for immigrant children at pre-primary level to introduce them tothe language of instruction so that they will be ready for their transfer to compulsory education. In theUnited Kingdom (England and Scotland), pre-school staff are advised to give particular attention toaddressing the needs of children for whom English is an additional language.Even if there is considerable emphasis on the need to acquire rudiments of the language of instructionrapidly, other support measures are also implemented for the benefit of immigrant children.Among measures to help them with certain areas of the curriculum, additional support for learningis the most widespread form of arrangement. Pupils are taught individually or in groups, generally duringthe part of the school timetable set aside for learning basic subjects such as reading, writing ormathematics. Often countries that organise curriculum support activities at school may also modify thecontent of what is learnt or alter their assessment methods to take the special requirements of immigrantpupils into account. This applies to the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Slovenia, Finland and the United Kingdom(England, Wales and Northern Ireland). Furthermore in Finland, the certificate awarded on completion ofcompulsory education refers specifically to the mother tongue of immigrants, provided that at least halfof their instruction was given in that language, as well as in Finnish or Swedish.Reducing the number of pupils in each class is another measure adopted in some countries. It is oftenrecommended that separate classes or groups should contain 15 pupils at most. Mixed group classes inmainstream education may be required to include no more than a limited number of pupils of immigrantorigin (as in the Czech Republic, Germany and Italy).45