Hungary: Bilingual school for Ukrainian refugees

Since September, Budapest has had the only bilingual school in Europe for Ukrainian refugee children, which issues both a certificate accepted in the host country – in this case Hungarian – and a Ukrainian certificate. The NGO House of Ukrainian Traditions has been working for two years on the organization and accreditation of this school, which received the final push during a personal meeting between Viktor Orbán and Volodymyr Zelensky.

The Hungarian school did not teach them Hungarian

The Ukrainian House of Traditions is a non-profit limited liability company, mainly run by a Ukrainian couple who had previously arrived in Hungary, Serhiy Beskorovainy and his wife Olena. Serhiy and Olena noticed that Ukrainian students enrolled in Hungarian education were not integrated effectively or at all, that they were not learning the language and that, as a result, they were getting bad grades or had to repeat a year.

Apart from the language difficulties, the situation has not been helped by the fact that the Ukrainian and Hungarian curricula are structured very differently: while in the Hungarian system the same topics are repeated over and over again with increasing complexity, the Ukrainian curriculum teaches blocks in a linear sequence, Olena explained to Euronews. In the twelfth grade, the two curricula are roughly the same, but along the way, as most Ukrainian students are forced to do, a change of course is required.

Finally, Olena explains that the Ukrainians who remained in Hungary stopped going to the West partly because they consider their situation temporary and want to return to Ukraine when the war is over. That is why many of them did not even try Hungarian education, opting instead for online education provided by the Ukrainian state, which also has its drawbacks. Fathers were not allowed to leave Ukraine, mothers were usually trying to find work, and children were left alone in the apartment with their traumas and screens.

“When we finally opened the school, I went through the classrooms and asked short questions: where are you from, where have you studied so far?” says Serhiy, recounting a typical story of the failure of school integration.

In the Hungarian-Ukrainian bilingual school, they discovered that, oddly enough, it was easier to learn Hungarian with other Ukrainian children because the language did not isolate the Ukrainian children from the others.

Panic attack when helicopter flies over school

Olena also points out that the children who remained in Ukrainian distance learning have already spent a total of four years away from school and therefore from their peer group: two because of COVID and two because of the war. In addition, many Ukrainian refugee children are severely traumatized.

“Children from eastern Ukraine have had their homes bombed and have nowhere to return,” says Olena, giving an idea of ​​the memories her students have to overcome.

“The third category is children who come from the territories occupied by Russia. These children have been starved and mistreated, they can suffer from severe anxiety if their food is a little late, and they must be treated with special care so that they can return to a normal childhood.”

At school, these traumas are treated by two psychologists, one for primary school children and one for older children. But it is also helpful that the classes are taught by Ukrainian refugee teachers who know exactly what these children have experienced and can treat them with the necessary empathy.

The Hungarian state supports the school, but does not maintain it

Their salaries are paid by the Hungarian state, but all other costs – from maintaining the building to purchasing teaching supplies – are covered by the Ukrainian House of Traditions, which runs the school, with the support of charities, Ukrainian businesses and international aid organisations. Serhiy told Euronews that he was very grateful to the Hungarian state for making the school possible in this way. He also said that once the political decision was made by the two leaders, the extraordinary helpfulness of the Hungarian authorities helped them obtain all the necessary permits and get up and running in less than two months.

The school employs about thirty teachers, most of whom are native Ukrainian speakers. Inna Petrenko teaches physics. The woman, who appears to be in her thirties, speaks in rounded sentences and clearly does not complain. She explains that she had another job in Hungary before the school opened, but she does not want to talk about it. Instead, she insists that she is happy to be back in her job and that her children enjoy being together.

– I think children want to learn more now, – says Inna, – they have been taking online classes and not communicating with their peers. I see that they are happy to meet other children and other teachers again, to read and talk instead of looking at the screen.

A backpack with four clothing orders

Veronika, 15, arrived in Hungary in the spring of 2022 with a small backpack, four items of clothing and her sister, without her parents. A smiling, bubbly and conscientious teenager, she has clearly done a lot to settle in Hungary. She attended four schools. “They weren’t bad, but the atmosphere here is completely different,” the teenager says.

“It was a difficult time, but I feel like I grew up, I became stronger, I learned to control my emotions,” she says of the difficulties of adjusting.

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According to her, Budapest residents who try to participate in Ukrainian online education on their own will have more difficulty communicating not only in Hungarian, but also, increasingly, in their native language, and will therefore have more difficulty adapting. She has grown fond of Hungary and would like to continue her studies there. “I can help my country from here,” she adds abruptly, as if she had been caught red-handed.

Four hundred out of five thousand

Officials point out that Hungarian-Ukrainian bilingualism is a unique model in Europe, even though Ukrainian refugees face similar problems in many countries. They say that Ukrainian refugees who have settled in the richer core EU states may be more motivated to integrate, but the situation is very similar to that of Ukrainian refugees in Hungary, with only a much larger number of Ukrainians fleeing to Romania, Slovakia and Poland. Despite this, only Hungary has taken steps to address the problem, even if they are part of a policy of political gestures.

Serhiy Beskorovainy repeatedly recalls the words of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán after his talks with President Zelensky about the Ukrainian bilingual school: “He said that Hungary would finance the construction of a Ukrainian bilingual school as much as possible. “He said that Hungary would finance as many Ukrainian schools as needed,” he recalls. According to UN estimates, there are 10,000 Ukrainian school-age children in Hungary, but the Beskorovainy couple believe that the real number may be only half that figure, or 5,000. Olena estimates that three-quarters of them are receiving Ukrainian education online at home, on their own – as much as they learn.

The Hungarian-Ukrainian bilingual school and gymnasium in Chepel currently has 400 students.

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