Educational integration of refugee children in Polish schools. Where do we stand after the introduction of compulsory schooling?

Over 200,000 children and youth from Ukraine are now studying in Polish schools – 152,000 are boys and girls who fled the war in Ukraine, and 51,000 are migrant children who arrived in Poland before February 2022. Students from Ukraine account for 4% of children in Polish schools, although in some areas their presence is nearly double, such as in Wrocław, where they make up 7.8% of the student population.

We present the key findings from research and analyses conducted by the Center for Citizenship Education and the UNICEF Refugee Response Office in Poland.

The introduction of mandatory schooling in September 2024 for school-aged children resulted in an increase of over 18,000 students in Polish schools (as of October 2024). The growth in student numbers is more pronounced in secondary schools (over 11,000 new students) than in primary schools (just under new 7,000 students). This increase is significantly smaller than what was forecasted by the Ministry of National Education (MEN), as well as by educational institutions and non-governmental organizations.

A comparison of Educational Information System (SIO) and Social Security data (ZUS), although with limitations related to the differences in data collection methods of these institutions, shows that the number of students on whom the 800+ benefit is collected is almost equal to the number of children in schools. Therefore, assumptions can be made that most children from Ukrainian families who receive 800+ are already studying in a Polish school, even though the formal requirement linking the payment to school attendance will only come into effect in June 2025.

At the same time, the PESEL UKR database still contains approximately 309,000 school-aged children and youth. These different data sets make it impossible to unambiguously determine how many refugee children from Ukraine living in Poland are not fulfilling their compulsory education obligation.

An increasing enrolment trend is good news for Polish society as analyses clearly indicate that the educational integration of students from Ukraine into Polish schools, despite increased spending on education, brings numerous long-term economic and social benefits. These include increased labour productivity, reduced burden on the social welfare system, increased tax revenues, and a potential reduction in Poland’s negative population growth rate.

Experiences from other European countries and related research highlight that investing in the education of refugee and migrant children leads to significant long-term benefits that outweigh the costs of such initiatives, benefitting both for the individuals and the host societies, provided that effective integration policies are in place.

Based on analysed data from SIO and ZUS, we also know that:

• The presence of students from Ukraine in the Polish education system is widespread – they are enrolled in 58% of Polish schools (almost 12,500 institutions).
• In October 2024, approximately 5,000 more 800+ benefits were paid to school-aged children and youth from Ukraine than in April 2024. However, because the number of benefits paid for children below school age decreased significantly, the total number of benefits for individuals under 18 decreased by about 4,000.
• Youth from Ukraine living in Poland are more likely to enrol in vocational education – around 70% of refugee students from Ukraine in secondary schools are studying in technical or trade schools (15 percentage points more than other students).
• The number of refugee students using Polish as a second language classes in secondary schools has decreased from 60% in April 2024 to 42% in October 2024. Further analysis is required to understand the reasons for this decrease. 

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The full text of the report can be found here: Refugee students from Ukraine in Polish schools. | UNICEF Europe and Central Asia