By Olha Hembik | 2024-09-27

WARSAW -- Schools throughout Poland are working to incorporate Ukrainian children following a new law requiring that they attend Polish schools.

A new law effective September 1 makes school attendance mandatory for Ukrainian refugees.

Under the law, all Ukrainian schoolchildren who arrived in Poland after February 24, 2022, must attend Polish schools. School principals and local self-governing bodies will be in charge of overseeing compliance.

Until now, Ukrainian children in Poland could choose what to do: study remotely at Ukrainian schools or a hybrid arrangement.

If the pupil fails to comply with this new law, parents face the possibility of compulsory proceedings and a fine.

Starting in June 2025 they could also lose social assistance as part of the 800+ state program, which gives every minor 800 zlotys (€187) per month in monetary aid.

Since the start of September, around 40,000 Ukrainian students enrolled in Polish schools, bringing the total to around 220,000 Ukrainian refugee children enrolled in Polish schools and preschools, Polskie Radio reported.

Acclimating in the classroom

Ukrainian students have faced significant cultural barriers within the Polish school system, according to a report published by the humanitarian organizations Care International, Save the Children and the International Rescue Committee (IRC) earlier this year.

In survey of Ukrainian students, 72% cited difficulties with the language barrier.

Others said they did not understand the Polish education system or found it very challenging to access formal Polish education.

To address these issues, intercultural assistants, who are mainly educators with refugee status, will be helping Ukrainian children settle into Polish classrooms.

These assistants are tasked with working with a specific child for a full school year.

"There's at least one Ukrainian student in one-quarter of Polish classrooms," said Jędrzej Witkowski, CEO of the Center for Citizenship Education.

"That means that every teacher in Poland needs to know how to ... normalize ethnic diversity, which is a new phenomenon in Polish schools," Witkowski told Kontur.

He pointed out the timeliness of the changes recently made to the set of skills that every teacher in Poland is required to master.

For example, teachers need to know how to teach and assess diverse classes and simplify the language of instruction so it is easier for foreigners in the Polish school system to understand.

The intercultural assistants are trained by NGOs such as the Polish Forum Migration.

Safe schools

Steps are also being taken to ensure that Polish schools remain a safe place for foreign students.

There is now an established protocol for combating bullying in Polish schools. If any harassment occurs or there is cause for complaint, a student's parents are supposed to report the problem to the homeroom teacher.

If the bullying continues, the parents then report the problem in writing to the school principal and then to the police if necessary.

"Having a school psychologist around can help protect against harassment -- for example, when there are educational initiatives where the psychologist explains the consequences of this kind of behavior to all students, or when they provide counseling to victims of harassment," said Danylo Gnap , a child safeguarding officer at the Unbreakable Ukraine foundation in Warsaw.

There are also helplines for children and adolescents in Poland and a hotline run by the Children's Rights Ombudsperson in Ukraine that offer counseling.

Psychologists at Ukrainian House, an NGO in Warsaw that specialises in supporting the integration of foreigners and migrants into Polish society, also provide counseling to Ukrainian children who are victims of bullying.

"Safeguarding programs work well in Poland," Nataliya Karapata, a family therapist who works for Ukrainian House in Warsaw, told Kontur. "It's important to seek counseling in time and make sure that a stressful psychological state doesn't get worse or that children develop depression."