The education secretary has said his team are looking at how the government can have “more recognition” of Ukrainian teaching qualifications so that teachers coming from the war-torn country can start work here as soon as possible.
Speaking in the House of Commons at education questions today, Nadhim Zahawi was asked whether the Department for Education would consider following the lead of the Republic of Ireland, which plans to fast track registration processes for Ukrainian teachers.
In Ireland, the move is focused on ensuring that schools are ready to meet the needs of Ukrainian children fleeing their home country over the coming weeks and months.
Responding to today’s question by SNP education spokesperson Carol Monaghan, Mr Zahawi said he had asked his team about the issue this morning.
“I think the honourable lady raises a really important point, which is one of the things I asked my team this morning around Ukrainians, and it’ll probably be predominantly women and children who are coming over, as the men are fighting,” he said.
Teachers fleeing war-torn Ukraine
“This is whether we can get more recognition of qualifications so that actually Ukrainians who are able to are able to get work as soon as possible.”
The education secretary also said the government was making plans to ensure that Ukrainian children got into the “appropriate” level of education, after arriving in the UK.
The move comes after he confirmed last week that Oak National Academy will roll out translated versions of its lessons in Ukrainian and Russian.
The online school’s 10,000 lessons will be made available to Ukrainian children in their own languages to help support families arriving in the UK seeking refuge from the Russian invasion.
The National Tutoring Programme (NTP) and the DfE’s approach to Russian energy provider Gazprom were among the other issues discussed in the education questions session.
Shadow minister for apprenticeships and lifelong learning Toby Perkins said the NTP was “failing to reach disadvantaged children”, while shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson asked Mr Zahawi whether Randstad’s delivery of the programme had been a “success”.
Mr Zahawi praised the take-up figures for the scheme, particularly on the school-led tutoring route, and called on Ms Phillipson to “celebrate” it.
Speaking about Gazprom, Mr Zahawi said that the Russian energy provider was “no longer on the roster of suppliers to government” but didn’t clarify whether this included the government-run School Switch Service.
Tes revealed earlier this month that school leaders had called for Gazprom to be removed from the service, which provides a way for schools and academies to obtain energy supply quotations and to switch their energy supplier.
Tes has enquired as to whether the company has been removed but at the time of writing this had not been confirmed.
