The Ministry of Education and discipline (MEiN) announced that the number of Ukrainian students in Polish schools reached over 286 thousand. Most of them are registered in the Mazowieckie Voivodeship, where almost 32 1000 students from Ukraine learn.
New data of the Ministry of Education indicate that the number of Ukrainians in Polish educational institutions is importantly higher than previously provided by the Central Statistical Office (GUS) or the Ministry of Education and discipline itself.
Of the 183,461 students from Ukraine who came to Poland after the invasion of Russia and have the position of “refugee”, and another 103,073 citizens Ukraine without this status, and who have already been to Poland, we have a full of 286 534 Ukrainian students presently studying in Polish institutions.
Most students from Ukraine who came to Poland before the outbreak of the war as a commercial emigration are educated in post-secondary schools (nearly 39 thousand), while another 32 1000 attend primary schools. There are over 11,000 students among refugees in post-secondary schools, and almost 113 000 in simple schools. The number of Ukrainian children in kindergartens is 42.5 thousand, of which 28 1000 are “refugees”.
According to government data, out of 1,719 257 citizens Ukraine legally residing in Poland, as much as 33.8 percent are under the age of 18. About 1.5 million Ukrainians were in Poland before the outbreak of the war, and after vacation, an additional 6.5 1000 Ukrainian students arrived in Polish schools with the position of “refugee”. In the erstwhile school year 178,972 students from Ukraine were educated in Poland, including 115,677 in simple schools and 19,429 in secondary schools.
Practically all 3rd kid from Ukraine, who arrived after the outbreak of the war, participates in additional free lessons of Polish language – as many as 66 834.
In terms of location, the most students from Ukraine are in the Mazowieckie Voivodeship (more than 31.6 thousand), Silesian (20.4 thousand), Wielkopolska (nearly 19 thousand) and Lesser Poland (15.6 thousand). In Silesia and Opole almost all another student from Ukraine learns Polish, while in Małopolska it is all seventh student, and in Mazowsze or Lublin – all third.
Dr. Jędrzej Witkowski, president of the Centre for Civic Education, draws attention to the alleged "grey zone" – Ukrainian children who do not formally attend Polish schools, although they live in Poland. According to the organization, this may affect between 170 and 200 000 young Ukrainians.
Mirosław Skórka, president of the Ukrainian Union in Poland, believes that the Polish school should supply Ukrainian children with lessons in Ukrainian language and culture.
It is worth reminding that at the beginning of this year the Minister of Education Przemysław Czarnek predicted that in the next 4 years the education strategy will lose even half a million students if children from Ukraine leave Polish schools. Nevertheless, he expressed hope that Ukrainian children would remain.
In July 2022 Minister Czarnek informed that more than 200 000 children were admitted to Polish schools and kindergartens, estimating that another 200 000 could join the education strategy from 1 September. However, subsequent information suggests that these forecasts did not work.
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MEiN reported that little than 300 000 children from Ukraine learn in Polish schools:
