It has been officially announced by the Ministry of Education that Polish schools are ready to accept hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian children that were forced to flee the war.

A wide welcoming program is being established and coordinated by the Polish school system in order to manage this massive influx of new pupils. 

This initiative requires among others an efficient strategy when it comes to the issue of translation. Nevertheless, hundreds of volunteers, including retired teachers, already offered to help when it comes to this challenge.

Already before the outbreak of the ongoing conflict,  the Minister of Education Przemysław Czarnek had announced that plans were being put in place “for the children of Ukrainian refugees in the event of an armed conflict”. 

The Education Minister also emphasised that there is a sufficient amount of school infrastructure available to provide the arriving Ukrainian children with appropriate care.

In Poland, pupils aged between 7 and 18 are entitled to a place in the school of the area they are residing in. This benefit will apply to the Ukrainian children who have been arriving in Poland for the last week as well. 

The children’s parents will be asked to submit an official application to a designated school. If this one school is already full, the local council will discuss the matter in order to find an alternative.

After consultation with local authority representatives, the Ministry of Education agreed to increase the size of preparatory classes from 15 to 25 pupils. In the school year 2020/2021, Ukrainian pupils were 60,000 of the 4.9 million pupils in Polish schools. As explained above, these figures will skyrocket from September.

Image: Facebook Ministerstwo Spraw Wewnętrznych i Administracji

Author: Sbastien Meuwissen