Ukrainian refugee children in Poland who remain outside the Polish education system will be obliged to attend school from September. It is estimated that there are at least tens of thousands of such children, who have so far been able to continue their Ukrainian education remotely.
The new requirement was announced on Thursday by deputy education minister Joanna Mucha, who said that the issue had been discussed with the Ukrainian government.
Wiceminister edukacji narodowej Joanna Mucha powiedziała w środę, że od września 2024 r. wprowadzony zostanie obowiązek szkolny dla ukraińskich dzieci przebywających w Polsce.https://t.co/PBHulWiNeH
— Portal Samorządowy (@PSamorzadowy) April 4, 2024
“The ministers who met with us are very interested in seeing this obligation introduced in Poland,” said Mucha, quoted by the Polish Press Agency (PAP). “They are offering…cooperation. We will certainly take up this offer. Most of the plan is ready. We are just waiting…for the provisions of the law.”
A report presented in January by the Center for Citizenship Education (CEO), a Polish NGO focused on education, estimated that around 150,000 Ukrainian children in Poland are not attending Polish schools.
Mucha, however, said that following talks with the Ukrainian side, the Polish education ministry is convinced that the actual number is lower, around 50,000 to 60,000. “The Ukrainians have their own statistics, I think quite accurate and reliable,” she said.
Over half of Ukrainian refugee children in Poland are not registered in the country's education system.
Two UN agencies have urged parents to enrol their children in schools ahead of the new academic year https://t.co/XbzrGOd4O7
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) July 11, 2023
According to the ministry’s data, as of 21 February 2024, about 277,300 Ukrainian children are in the Polish education system, reported the Dziennik Gazeta Prawna newspaper.
Polish schools were opened to Ukrainian children – who made up around half of refugees – in the very first days after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Parents, however, were not obliged to send their children to a Polish school, being able instead to continue their Ukrainian education remotely. Some parents also chose to keep their children in both systems, attending school in Poland and studying remotely in Ukraine.
Around 200,000 Ukrainian refugees have joined schools in Poland, with most placed in regular Polish classes and thousands taking exams in Polish this month
That approach has faced criticism from those who say it places unfair demands on schools and pupils https://t.co/omibLrBPQz
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) May 18, 2022
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Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.
