Attachments
CONTEXT
For hundreds of thousands of children affected by the war in Ukraine, this new school year will be their fifth year of interrupted education; the first two were interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the third and fourth by the war, with potential for more years of interruption to follow.
An estimated 1.3 million children have fled to the European Union, where they have been offered protection following the activation of the Temporary Protection Directive in March 20221 . This directive, which applies to Poland and Romania, stipulates that “Member States shall grant to persons under 18 years of age enjoying temporary protection access to the education system under the same conditions as nationals of the host Member State”2 . Similarly in Moldova, school aged children from Ukraine who have applied for Temporary Protection can enroll and attend local schools.3
Nevertheless, at the end of 2022/2023 academic year, a worryingly high number of children from Ukraine who have fled to neighboring countries were not in school. In Poland, which hosts the highest number of refugees from Ukraine, 56 % of school aged children from Ukraine were not studying in Polish schools.4 In Moldova a mere 4% of school aged children from Ukraine were enrolled in schools by the end of the 2022-2023 school year, while in Romania only 10% of school aged refugee children from Ukraine were attending Romanian schools.