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UK government urged to introduce GCSE in Ukrainian for child refugees

UK government urged to introduce GCSE in Ukrainian for child refugees

Children’s commissioner joins Kyiv in asking DfE to create new qualification to cope with ‘immense upheaval’ of fleeing war

Matthew Weaver

Thu 22 May 2025 11.00 BST

The children’s commissioner has joined Kyiv in lobbying the UK government to introduce a new GCSE in Ukrainian to help child refugees cope with the “immense upheaval” of fleeing war in their country.

In December, the Guardian revealed that Ukraine was “deeply concerned” to discover many Ukrainian teenagers are being pressed into learning Russian in British schools because no GSCE in Ukrainian is available.

Since then Ukraine’s education minister, Oksen Lisovyi, has met the UK education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, to underline his government’s fear that being taught Russian is retraumatising Ukrainian teenagers who have fled Vladimir Putin’s invasion.

Vitalii, now 18, who fled to London from Ukraine in April 2022, said: “Why should I study Russian – I’m Ukrainian and I want to show it. The language is paramount for all us.”

Since the meeting with Lisovyi, Phillipson confirmed on Instagram this week that she has written to exam boards urging them to reintroduce an exam that was scrapped in 1995 owing to a lack of demand. The Department for Education (DfE) has also set up a working group to help implement the move. One of the exam boards, AQA, said it was carefully considering reintroducing the qualification. But education sector insiders are sceptical about the practicalities of the move.

It has also emerged the children’s commissioner, Rachel de Souza, has been urging the government to reintroduce a GCSE in Ukrainain.

She intervened after visiting St Mary’s, a network of 13 Ukrainian language schools in the UK, founded at the trust’s headquarters in west London.

De Souza said: “I’ve seen for myself the great work St Mary’s Ukrainian School is doing with the children who attend. It has become a sanctuary for families, helping displaced children reach their goals and aspirations in spite of the immense upheaval they’ve experienced.

De Souza said she was encouraged by the DfE’s decision to take up the issue with exam boards. She said: “I have long called for the DfE to consider making qualifications available in Ukrainian for these children, who rightly want an opportunity to feel proud of their culture and their language, so I am really pleased to see this.

“Ukrainian children living here in the UK are the future of their country and will play a vital role in its recovery, so we must match their level of ambition and make sure they receive all the support possible to thrive in their education.”

An AQA spokesperson said: “We’ve every sympathy with Ukrainian students who, through no fault of their own, find themselves many miles from home and want to gain formal accreditation of their language.

“As an education charity, we stand ready to do what we can to support Ukrainian students. We have received a letter from the education secretary about developing a GCSE in the Ukrainian language and are considering it carefully.”

But an education industry source said: “Realistically it takes two years to develop a qualification, it takes another two years to teach it. So a GCSE is not going to help students who are currently here who have fled Ukraine.”

St Mary’s has proposed becoming a hub for both GCSE and A-level qualifications in Ukrainian.

In a letter to Phillipson, Ukraine’s ministry of education backed this suggestion. It said: “Establishing a Ukrainian GCSE centre will provide these children with opportunities to take Ukrainian GCSE and A-level exams, supporting their educational and professional goals.”

It also pointed out that demand for the qualification has soared owing to the number of children that have fled to the UK under the Homes for Ukraine scheme.

It said: “As of now, the number of potential students of Ukrainian descent interested in pursuing Ukrainian GCSE is at an all-time high: about 27,000 displaced Ukrainian children and around 7,000 diaspora children.”

It added: “Maintaining proficiency in Ukrainian is crucial for displaced children’s transition back to Ukraine, especially as many families may decide to reunite when it is safe.”

A DfE spokesperson said: “This government has set out our decisive support for our Ukrainian friends. That’s why we have, last week, asked exam boards to consider introducing a Ukrainian GCSE – giving these young people the chance to celebrate their heritage and their native language.”

UK to co-host global conference with aim of resolving Sudan’s civil war

 UK to co-host global conference with aim of resolving Sudan’s civil war

Foreign ministers will gather in London and seek to exert diplomatic pressure demanding a ceasefire

Patrick Wintour Diplomatic editor

Wed 9 Apr 2025 15.12 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/09/uk-to-co-host-global-conference-with-aim-of-resolving-sudans-civil-war

The British government is bringing together foreign ministers from nearly 20 countries and organisations in an attempt to establish a group that can drive the warring factions in Sudan closer towards peace.

The conference at Lancaster House in London on 15 April comes on the second anniversary of the start of a civil war that has led to the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis, but has been persistently left at the bottom of the global list of diplomatic priorities. Half of Sudan’s population are judged to be desperately short of food, with 11 million people internally displaced.

The initiative holds risks for the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, since it may require him to place pressure on some of the UK’s Middle Eastern allies to make good on their promises no longer to arm the warring parties.

The UK along with Germany and France, which are co-hosting the conference, have not invited to London the two warring parties, the Sudanese Armed Forces or the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group that has attacked non-Arabic groups in Darfur.

The two sides are judged to be a long way from seeking peace and it is thought diplomatic energy is best placed on securing a consensus among rival external backers that a ceasefire must be demanded and impunity for war crimes will end.

Sudan’s foreign minister, Ali Youssef, has written to Lammy to protest against his exclusion. Youssef also criticised invitations to the conference for the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Chad and Kenya, which he termed “stakeholders in the war”.

Sudan’s government has accused the UAE, a close UK ally, of complicity in genocide by covertly arming the RSF, headed by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, commonly known as Hemedti. The UAE has condemned as a publicity stunt the Sudanese government’s decision to take on 10 April its claim of UAE complicity to the international court of justice, saying Abu Dhabi helped the RSF commit genocide against the Masalit tribe in West Darfur.

The Sudanese government, itself backed by another UK ally Saudi Arabia as well as Egypt, has also been accused of war crimes. Both the Sudanese Armed Forces and the RSF have formally been accused by the UN of using starvation as a weapon of war.

A harsh spotlight is also very likely to fall in London on the impact of USAID cuts on the provision of humanitarian aid in Sudan as well as the withdrawal of funding from academic groups that have been monitoring war crimes and the build-up of famine. NGOs such as Human Rights Watch are also urging the ministerial conference to emphasise the importance of civilian protection, independent of a ceasefire.

At an event previewing the conference, Kate Ferguson, the co-director of the NGO Protection Approaches, said: “The conference comes at a critical moment for civilians in Sudan as areas of control under various armed forces rapidly evolve and civilians face an increasing spectrum of varied attack.”

She added: “A new vehicle is needed to take forward civilian protection. This is a moment here to create something new that is desperately needed – whether that is a coalition of conscience or a contact group.” Ferguson added that “citizens were facing an unimaginable triple threat of armed conflict, identity-based atrocity crimes and humanitarian catastrophe”.

Shayna Lewis from Avaaz said: “The solution that can yield the greatest impact for civilian protection is the restoration of telecommunication networks. More than 25 million people are cut off from the internet and cannot send texts or make phone calls. This is the equivalent of half of England’s population being cut off from the outside world and that explains why it is so difficult for the media to cover Sudan.”

Task 1. Comment on the title of the article.

Task 2. Read and translate the article paying attention to the words and phrases in bold.

Task 3. Find the English equivalents of the following words and phrases:

1) совместное проведение конференции

2) международный суд

3) выступать против исключения

4) дипломатический приоритет

5) союзник

6) вооружать воюющие стороны

7) осуждать

8) прекращение огня

9) гуманитарный кризис

10) совершить геноцид против

11) использовать голод как орудие войны

12) вывод финансирования

13) коалиция совести

Task 4. Make up some sentences of your own with the words and phrases in bold.

Task 5. Act out a dialogue using the new vocabulary.

Task 6. Read the article a second time and be ready to discuss in the classroom:

-           what was the author’s intention to tell the general public about

-           what is the main idea/ problem raised

-           speak on the logical devision

Make up and answer the questions.

Task 7. Write a rendering of the article. Mind the rules of a rendering writing. (second lesson)

For and Against writing

1. Go through the link below to read some instructions on how to write For and Against writing. 

https://youtu.be/2Czs4w8aI7M?si=lXn5E1T13rvN-u8S

2. Go through the link below and watch a short video explanation on how to write For and Against writing. 

https://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/skills/writing/b1-writing/against-essay

Mr Know-All by Williams Somerset Maugham

Go through the link below to watch a film "Mr Know-All".

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfO-6RP7mko