Poland tries to integrate children from Ukraine into its educational system
20 February 12:56
As of October 2024, approximately 200 thousand children from Ukraine attended schools in Poland, 152 thousand of whom arrived in the country with the outbreak of full-scale war. This is reported by the Gremi Personal Employment Agency, citing data from the Polish Center for Civic Education, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports.
The Center for Civic Education has published a new report “Students from Ukraine with refugee experience in Polish schools”, the authors of which use statistics from the Educational Information System, the register of persons with PESEL UKR numbers and data from the Social Insurance Office.
According to the Education Information System, in the fall of 2024, 195.3 thousand children from Ukraine attended Polish schools and kindergartens.
Among them:
– over 152 thousand children (78%) attended primary and secondary schools;
– more than 31 thousand children (14%) attended kindergartens
– almost 12 thousand (8%) attended courses
This is a record figure since February 2022.
According to the Center for Civic Education, there are 4 Ukrainians for every 100 students in Polish schools.
Meanwhile, according to the register of persons with the PESEL UKR number, there are 309 thousand children from Ukraine in Poland. This database is an official state register, but experts doubt that it reflects the real number of children in the country.
According to the Educational Information System, only 157 thousand children go to school. It turns out that there are more than 150 thousand school-age children who are included in the PESEL UKR database but are not covered by school education.
It is assumed that these children have left and are studying elsewhere, studying online in Ukrainian schools, or are in Poland and are not studying in any schools at all.
Ukrainians are “encouraged” to attend schools in Poland
In July 2024, school attendance was linked to the 800 plus benefit, meaning that now only those parents from Ukraine whose children study in Polish schools can receive the benefit.
It seems that this change has affected attendance, as the number of refugee children in Polish schools has increased by 13.5% (18.1 thousand people) to 152.3 thousand. It should be noted that 151 thousand parents receive payments from ZUS.
The authors of the report note that the linking of 800 plus to schooling may have had a particular impact on the presence of young people aged 15-17 in schools.
At the same time, approximately 70% of refugee students from Ukraine study at technical or vocational schools.
Among Ukrainian students, this figure is 15% higher than among Polish students. The authors of the report attribute this to two reasons: the desire of Ukrainian teenagers to obtain a specialty faster or selection after the eighth-grade exam (an exam in math, Polish and foreign languages, the results of which affect where the student will go to study next).
The report also says that more than 42% of Ukrainian students attend additional classes in Polish as a foreign language. In April 2024, the number of such students was 60%. The authors of the report say that this change should be alarming, as knowledge of Polish is a prerequisite for successful study in Polish educational institutions and integration into society.
Recently, during a conference dedicated to children and youth from Ukraine, Vice Minister of Education Joanna Mukha announced the ministry’s intention to assess the level of knowledge of Polish among Ukrainian children. This will be done in order to understand which students need additional support in learning Polish. So far, no such tests have been conducted.
Schools in Poland organize free Polish language classes for children from Ukraine who do not know Polish or have poor language skills. But, according to Joanna Mucha, teachers often do not know how to teach in such groups, and the classes themselves do not have any system of verification.
According to the vice minister, the Polish government has not done enough to help children from Ukraine integrate into the Polish educational system. As a reminder, Ukrainian students were invited to Polish schools in 2022, but schooling was introduced only in the 2024/2025 school year.
How many Ukrainians are currently in Europe?
As of December 31, 2024, about 4.3 million people who fled Ukraine as a result of Russia’s full-scale invasion have temporary protection status in the EU. This data was released on February 10 by Eurostat.
The EU countries that have received the largest number of temporary protection beneficiaries from Ukraine are Germany (1,161,450 people; 27.3% of the total in the EU), Poland (991,630; 23.3%) and the Czech Republic (388,625; 9.1%).
Compared to November 2024, the total number of persons under temporary protection in the EU as of December increased by 25,590 (plus 0.6%). The largest absolute increase in the number of beneficiaries was observed in Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic.
as of December 31, 2024, Ukrainian citizens accounted for over 98.3% of temporary protection beneficiaries in the EU. Adult women accounted for almost half (44.8%) of the beneficiaries. Children accounted for almost a third (31.9%), and adult men for less than a quarter (23.2%).
As you know, on June 25, 2024, the European Council decided to extend temporary protection for these people from March 4, 2025 to March 4, 2026.
