The education ombudsman tells what problems Ukrainian schools abroad face
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As of March 7, 2023, more than 760,000 Ukrainian immigrant students are studying in schools in the countries of the European Union. Due to the workload, not all children can study in Ukrainian schools at the same time, even in a distance format. One of the most common ways of accessing national education abroad is Ukrainian schools, where some of the displaced children study, according to educational ombudsman Serhiy Gorbachev. However, according to the ombudsman, the capabilities of most of these schools currently do not allow to reach a wide range of students. Serhiy Gorbachev Serhiy Gorbachev outlined several problems faced by Ukrainian schools abroad. One of the most important problems is that Ukrainian schools created abroad are currently not officially recognized by our state. “The national educational legislation does not contain regulations on the mechanism of establishing Ukrainian schools abroad,” says Serhiy Gorbachev. According to him, Ukrainian schools created abroad, in particular Saturday and Sunday schools, are mostly initiatives of non-interested foundations, cultural or public organizations of communities of Ukrainians abroad, which were founded in accordance with the legislation of the country in which they are located. Therefore, most of these schools cannot issue Ukrainian education documents to students. Only those institutions that have signed an agreement with the International Ukrainian School (IUS) or another Ukrainian school in Ukraine can do this. “The development, capacity of these schools and the possibility of studying in them, even more so long-term, will not be possible without systematic state support of such schools from the side of Ukraine. In order to recognize Ukrainian schools, it is necessary to make appropriate changes to the Ukrainian legislation”, – believes the educational ombudsman . In addition, Ukrainian schools abroad do not receive state support from Ukraine, particularly financial support. According to Gorbachev, the obstacle to creating an objective mechanism for financing Ukrainian schools abroad is the lack of correct accounting of the number of students. According to him, some of the schools abroad were created already during the full-scale war, and some were first created as short-term projects to help the displaced people finish the last school year. For example, 270 students started studying at the Warsaw Ukrainian School, which opened in April 2022, and 1,600 applications were received during recruitment for vacant places in the new academic year. It was not possible to take all those who wanted to go to the school due to the limited size of the premises, so those who completely lost the opportunity to study in the Ukrainian education system were enrolled in the school. In some countries, premises for the creation of Ukrainian schools are provided by embassies or local authorities or directors of foreign schools. In particular, in Poland, principals of Polish schools allowed until the end of the school year to use their classrooms for teaching Ukrainian students in the second shift. Another problem is that teachers who have gone abroad and work in Ukrainian schools are not recognized by Ukraine. Seniority is not counted for such teaching staff. In order to be officially employed, in some countries teachers are required to go through the procedure of recognition of their qualifications. Somewhere it is necessary even for work with Ukrainian children. “Accordingly, teachers cannot receive an official salary, because they are not employed through the official employment system. Therefore, some teachers work in Ukrainian schools abroad on a volunteer basis, but such work cannot last long,” says Serhiy Gorbachev. In addition, Ukrainian schools abroad are concentrated mainly in large cities of the countries. Some schools teach according to Ukrainian curricula approved by the Ministry of Education and Culture. Some develop their own. The Education Ombudsman is even aware of cases when Ukrainian schools abroad teach in Russian. For example, in Moldova. According to Gorbachev, this is caused, in particular, by the lack of Ukrainian teaching staff, as well as the position of the teachers themselves. It is also reported that there is a shortage of Ukrainian textbooks in such schools. And some schools provided children with textbooks in Russian. Serhii Gorbachev proposes to create a working group consisting of representatives of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, embassies, consulates, Ukrainian schools abroad, the educational ombudsman, etc., to work out changes to the legislation on the establishment and state support of Ukrainian schools abroad. Read also: What are the differences between schools abroad – survey by the educational ombudsman
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