Far fewer Ukrainian refugee children started school in Poland than expected after benefits change

Only around 20,000 new Ukrainian refugee children started attending Polish schools last month, when a change in the law linked child benefits to school enrolment.

That figure is between a quarter and one third of what the government was expecting and half of what the education ministry first reported shortly after the beginning of the school year.

“We were expecting between 60,000 and 80,000 new children in our system,” deputy education minister Joanna Mucha told broadcaster Tok FM. “The [actual] number…is much lower, because it is about 20,000 new Ukrainian children.”

Mucha added that, since the beginning of this calender year, parents of around 36,000 Ukrainian children have stopped receiving the main child benefit of 800 zloty (€186) per month. She underlined that some of those children have left Poland.

According to data obtained by the Polish Press Agency (PAP) from the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS), 247,000 Ukrainian refugee children received such benefits in the first half of this year, down from 323,000 in 2023 and 514,000 in 2022.

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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.

However, attendance was optional, with many parents instead preferring their children to continue with Ukrainian education online or at Ukrainian schools in Poland. But from 1 September 2024, children were obliged to attend Polish schools if their parents wish to receive child benefits.

Ahead of that date, the education ministry estimated that up to 80,000 new children would begin attending as a result. In mid-September, two weeks after the new law came into force, an education ministry spokesman told Polskie Radio that 40,000 new Ukrainian refugee students had joined schools.

Main image credit: Yunus Erdogdu

Alicja Ptak

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