Slovakia has not been successful in integrating Ukrainian pupils in schools for now, the available data shows. (source: TASR)
In March, Nadiya Barchuk, a 38-year-old croupier and mother of two from Kyiv, believed it would be best for her son to join a Slovak primary school after they fled the war in Ukraine and found refuge in Bratislava; but with a new school year approaching, she has changed her mind.
“We’re going to switch back to a Ukrainian school,” the mother said.
Her 10-year-old son, a fourth grader in Ukraine, had to join third graders in Bratislava. There is a lack of places, the school told Barchuk the past school year. Later on, other problems began to pile up. Petty complaints from teachers about her son’s behaviour, like eating bread during a lesson or asking classmates for food during a break, did not prevent her son from feeling like at home.
“On the last day of school, they told me to find a new school for my son due to his behaviour,” Barchuk said.
Seeing her in tears, the school later changed its mind and told the mother to phone in on the last day of August to see if there was a place available for her son. The school also asked her son to study a Slovak language textbook for fourth graders during the summer.
“They said, ‘All our [Slovak] children have to learn from it’,” the mother said.
Slovakia has not been successful in integrating Ukrainian pupils in schools up until now, a recent analysis has found. Things will change for the better, Education Minister Branislav Gröhling pledged in mid-August. Schools will receive a financial contribution from EU funds for each Ukrainian pupil, he announced.
For this story, The Slovak Spectator approached nearly 20 Ukrainian mothers and asked them to share if they have registered their children in primary schools in Slovakia. Most said that their children only attend Slovak schools. Then there were mothers whose children exclusively join online classes run by Ukrainian schools. A minimum said that their children simultaneously study at Slovak and Ukrainian schools.
In Slovakia, school attendance is compulsory for children with permanent residence in the country. Hence, for Ukrainian children with temporary protection status, Slovak school is an option rather than a duty.
The May data in a report on supporting Ukrainian learners in European schools published by Eurydice, a network explaining how European education systems work, show that only 31 percent, or 9,732 of 31,081 Ukrainian refugee children in Slovakia attended Slovak schools in the previous school year.
