Mass enrollment of Russian students: how are schools going to teach them even if they don’t speak Spanish?

Esteban Speyer started studying Russian out of cultural interest, out of simple curiosity: he wanted to understand the symbols of the language. The war between Russia and Ukraine had not yet broken out, much less the wave of migration had begun. At the time, in a forum, he met a woman from Volgograd – formerly Stalingrad – who was looking for a school for her daughter, Alina. He, as director of San Carlos, a private bilingual school in Olivos, invited her to visit the school. Alina was the first Russian student they received last year. Then seven other boys followed, but the director thinks that even more will join the school year which begins next week.

“There is a mixture of situations: Russian women who have become pregnant and have older children; families who choose Argentina as a place to live, easily accessible and with a strong cultural background; families fleeing war and not wanting to be called into service; families of Ukrainian origin living in Russia. The cases are varied, but increasingly frequent. I have other interviews already scheduled with Russian parents in the coming days,” Speyer said.

In recent months, in schools in the Metropolitan Area of ​​Buenos Aires (AMBA), enrollment has increased with Russian students. According to the figures he accessed GlobeLiveMediaonly Until today, 327 Russian boys are enrolled in public schools in Buenos Aires (71 in initial level, 194 in primary and 62 in secondary) to start classes on Monday. In previous years, there are no records of students of this nationality in the classrooms. In private schools, although there are no official figures, the cameras that group the establishments ensure that Russian registrations have also multiplied.

Registration is not limited to school-aged children. There are already 300 Russian-born adults who have registered to complete primary school in the city. The reasons vary: they are people who do not speak Spanish and need to prove a basic level of the language, or they have not finished primary school in their country, or they have finished the level in their country of origin but need a diploma that validates them in Argentina. . In the same way, there are also 105 Russian people registered to be trained in different areas of vocational training.

The Russian education system consists of 11 years: four in primary school and seven in secondary school.; unlike the Argentinian who has twelve years of obligation. In other words, a first-year student in Russia would be a fifth-year student in Argentina. Even if equivalence is difficult to establish: the learning is dissimilar and, according to the consultations, it is still difficult to specify the levels.

In San Carlos, says Speyer, they have opted for different strategies to integrate Russian students: in mathematics, it is easier, he says, but in literature, instead of a novel, they are given a story, artificial intelligence cats are used to help them with the language, some teachers translate their proposals into Russian with the help of the Google translator, they try to show recognizable figures for any culture.

“It’s a very rewarding experience for everyone. The boys come with a discipline of study and a very different conception of authority than here.. This is why they learn quickly and are surprised by the closeness that exists in class with the teacher. They don’t need to treat them like you,” the manager described.

At the Ministry of Education in Buenos Aires, there is still no mediator who speaks Russian. “Because of the entry into school of Russian-speaking children, we work with interpreters provided in some cases by the families themselves, in other cases we have the collaboration of people from the community who have a good command of Spanish, with whom we have already worked, and they attend the preliminary meetings between the school and the family,” they explained.

An anecdote that occurred at the Francesco Faà di Bruno College, located in Palermo, illustrates the need for an interpreter in previous meetings between families and managers. María Victoria Di Francesca, general director of the school, received the parents of a Russian boy who arrived two weeks ago and settled in the neighborhood. They approached because they were surprised to hear laughter in the institution, but they had a hard time carrying on a conversation. First they tried with precarious English, then they went to the translator by mobile phone, but the request for documentation and academic records was impossible.

“It’s a shame they didn’t come back and the boy didn’t join the institution. At school we have a lot of experience with foreign students, we even had a girl who only spoke Chinese. At the beginning you have to support them a little more closely, but later it is the same colleagues who integrate them and they learn very quickly. It’s wonderful to see how they progress so easily,” said Di Francesca.

What has existed for eight years in the educational portfolio is the team OTHER (Spanish Second Language for Inclusion), which is made up of specialists in linguistic, cognitive and cultural development. According to official information, he has several tasks: to facilitate the exchange between family and school, to detect possible points of confusion in communication, to give feedback on practical work in the mother tongue and even to produce material in that language.

Paula López Cano is rector of the Institute of Higher Education in Living Languages ​​”Juan Ramón Fernández”. The school is highly sought after by families arriving from Russia as it has a long tradition of teaching foreign languages. In fact, for 45 years they have had a program for adults focused on teaching Spanish as a second language, whose latest reform includes the training of teachers precisely to integrate children who come from abroad.

“The idea we pursue is interculturality. That it is possible to work with cultural differences to integrate children from different regions or, as in this case, those arriving from Russia. Last year we were surprised by the number of boys who enrolled in primary school and, above all, in secondary school,” warned López Cano.

Following the intense influx that started in 2022 and deepened in the first months of 2023, the school made a specific proposal to the Ministry of Education to support the learning of Russian students, not only to break the language barrier but also to combine the cultural differences within the class.

“Russian students have very good study habits and a very good attitude towards learning. They have made great progress and are adapting to school routines while bonding with their peers. They learn very quickly and are very motivated“, said the rector.

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