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BERLIN — When a teacher told Syrian mother Um Wajih that her 9-year-old son’s German had deteriorated during his Berlin school’s six-week shutdown, she was saddened but not surprised.
“Wajih had picked up German fast, and we were very proud of him,” said the 25-year-old mother of two.
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Germany's lengthy pandemic school closures hit migrant pupils hardest Back to video
“I knew that without practice he would forget what he had learned but I couldn’t help him.”
Her son now faces another year in a ‘welcome class’ for migrant children until his German is good enough to join native peers at a school in Berlin’s poor neighborhood of Neukoelln.