16 young Ukrainians go back to school in a small town near Lyon

“It is clear that we are going to open the school restaurant to all these children”, confided on March 3 Raphaël Ibanez, mayor of Saint-Pierre-de-Chandieu (Rhône), just after the arrival that morning of 49 Ukrainian refugees. Its small town of 4,800 inhabitants, very mobilized because of a historical link with the Veseli Cherevychky dance school in Lviv (Ukraine), is indeed opening its college and schools to young Ukrainians from this Monday.

As advertised Progress, 16 of them have just returned to school. “The goal is to get them into school as quickly as possible,” says Yoann Adler, district inspector. We will welcome them together, so as to assess their skills, so that they can be redirected to an establishment adapted to their age. It is an acquisition of knowledge, a general evaluation, without pressure. »

The pupils, aged 9 to 17, took their places in a refurbished room at the Louise-Michel kindergarten in Saint-Pierre-de-Chandieu. A Franco-Ukrainian teacher, retired in this town located 25 km from Lyon, will accompany them. According to Raphaël Ibanez, some of these students could join the Charles-de-Gaulle college in Saint-Pierre-de-Chandieu as of next week, as well as the Condorcet high school in Saint-Priest.