Under half of Ukrainian refugee children in Poland enrolled in locals schools, warn UN agencies

Two UN agencies have urged Ukrainian refugees in Poland to register their children in the country’s education system, noting that over half of such children are still not enrolled in Polish schools.

According to Polish government figures, there were nearly 180,000 refugees from Ukraine attending Polish schools and preschools at the end of the recently completed academic year. Meanwhile, between 200,000 and 300,000 school-age Ukrainians remained outside the education system, said the education minister in March.

UNICEF and UNHCR – the UN’s children’s and refugee agencies respectively – note that, among secondary-school-age Ukrainian refugees in Poland, only around one in five (22%) were attending school at the end of the academic year.

The agencies acknowledge that refugee children not attending school are likely to be enrolled in online studies. But they warn that, while such methods provided useful short-term solutions, in the long run they do not support social development and often have worse educational outcomes.

“Learning face to face in a safe space with peers and teachers is not only important for their education, but is crucial for their socialisation, mental health, and wellbeing,” wrote the agencies in a statement published yesterday.

“Schools go beyond places of learning, especially in times of war,” said Rashed Mustafa Sarwar, country coordinator for the UNICEF Refugee Response Office in Poland.

“They provide children who have already endured loss, displacement and violence with a sense of routine and safety, a chance to build friendships and get help from teachers, and the opportunity to integrate into host communities,” he added.

After Russia’s invasion in February last year, Poland became the main destination for the millions of people fleeing Ukraine. Initially, many parents opted for their children to continue their education in Ukrainian online rather than enrol them in Polish schools in the middle of the academic year.

However, even at the start of the new school year in September, most refugee children remained unregistered. The UN agencies cite overcrowded classes in Polish schools, the language barrier, and refugees’ frequent movement to and from Ukraine as some of the reasons behind the low enrolment rate.

These problems were discussed earlier this year by UN representatives and Poland’s education minister, Przemyslaw Czarnek, who announced that, if the war continues, there may be a need to introduce a mechanism to make it compulsory for refugee children to be enrolled in the Polish education system, as it is for Polish pupils.

“If this is to continue, we must introduce certain elements of education even if these children do not want to enter a Polish school,” he said, quoted by the Polish Press Agency (PAP). “We cannot afford to have several hundred thousand children from Ukraine out of the education system for a year, two or three years.”

When asked by journalists whether such a mechanism would be introduced from 1 September, when the new school year begins in Poland, the minister replied: “Yes, I think so”.

Main image credit: Cezary Aszkielowicz / Agencja Wyborcza.pl

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.