Attachments
1. SUMMARY
This report presents the results of a study commissioned by the Polish Center for International Aid (PCPM) Foundation and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The study aimed to develop strategies to support the integration of refugee children and leverage the potential of Ukrainian teachers in the Polish education system to reduce the burden on schools.
The educational institutions surveyed, which are interested in employing Ukrainian staff, primarily need intercultural assistants and teacher aides, as well as staff for pedagogical roles, school pedagogues and psychologists, support teachers, and subject teachers. Facilitating the employment of these individuals includes: access to financial support (for diploma recognition, qualification courses, and postgraduate studies, as well as ensuring continuity of intercultural assistants’ employment), Polish language courses, information about job vacancies and career paths, internships in educational institutions, and auxiliary roles until full qualifications are obtained.
Schools can further support the employment of Ukrainians by clearly defining job responsibilities, maintaining an open and supportive attitude among school leadership and staff, and fostering a positive approach toward multiculturalism. Soft skills and the presence of a large number of Ukrainian students also facilitate employment.
The benefits of hiring Ukrainian staff for schools are multifaceted—psychological, social, educational, and organizational.
These include supporting the mental well-being of students, promoting integration within the school community (including Ukrainian parents/guardians), and reducing the workload of teaching staff. The school also benefits from the exchange of experiences and good practices, which strengthens employees’ competencies and changes the work culture. Other benefits include filling vacancies and easier organization of additional classes or replacements. In addition, the possibility of using the potential of Ukrainian education staff and introducing changes in the education system of Polish language teachers in Ukraine is essential.
Ukrainian teachers face numerous obstacles in gaining employment in Polish schools, including a lack of systemic support, formal barriers, language difficulties, and low salaries due to unrecognized prior work experience.
Other difficulties stem from cultural differences, unsupportive attitudes from school communities, lack of self-confidence, and emotional strain. Some logistical challenges include the need to relocate, a lack of proper working conditions for intercultural assistants (e.g., dedicated meeting rooms), and the short duration of NGO projects supporting Ukrainians’ employment.
One significant barrier is the diploma recognition’s substantive and administrative complexity, which lengthens and complicates the process. Substantive barriers include: legal regulations for professions such as teacher, speech therapist, and psychologist, differences between higher education systems, discrepancies in curricula leading to a recognized lower qualification level, and the non-recognition of professional experience. Diploma recognition is inconsistently coordinated and varies between universities, ranging from general diploma compatibility assessments to detailed curriculum comparisons, which may yield different outcomes. Administrative barriers include translation errors, applicants’ unfamiliarity with procedures, incomplete documentation, the high cost and laborious nature of the nostrification, and an increasing number of applications.
Local governments, as the bodies overseeing educational institutions, can play a key role in supporting the integration of Ukrainian students and the employment of Ukrainian staff by financing salaries and language courses, disseminating job vacancy information, organizing integration workshops, and offering cultural awareness training. Examples of good practices include: establishing foreign student education teams and integration coordinators, welcome packages, hiring Ukrainian teachers and intercultural assistants, providing certified Polish language courses, supporting Psychological and Pedagogical Counseling Centers in students’ diagnosis, and cooperating with NGOs that support refugee children.
Ukrainian staff can play a vital role in integrating refugee children. Ukrainian students face specific challenges, including language barriers, social and emotional problems often linked to war trauma, and difficulty adjusting to the Polish education system. The main challenges include: differences between the Polish and Ukrainian education systems, increased school enrollment due to linking the “800+” benefit to compulsory schooling, feelings of coercion among students and parents, and late entry into the Polish education system. Additional challenges stem from the complex emotional, material, and social situations of refugee children and the barriers to diagnosing and supporting students with special needs, which require good cooperation with parents. The rise in anti-Ukrainian sentiment in Poland, the lack of systemic solutions, and the absence of long-term integration policies have led to segregation between Polish and Ukrainian student groups.
Most surveyed schools support Ukrainian students through psychological and peer support, Polish language classes, integration activities, and curriculum adjustments.
Schools can better address these children’s difficulties through intercultural assistants’ support and collaboration with parents/guardians, preparatory classes, subject tutoring, and teacher training. The integration process is also aided by systemic involvement from the Ministry of Education (via the "School for All" program and establishing an educational integration team), teacher professional development, and schools’ openness to multiculturalism. Helpful elements include standards for working with refugee/migrant students, continuous integration efforts, smaller classes and group work, access to preschools and early education, clear rules for preparatory class placement, and using these classes not just for language instruction but also for integration and inclusion in the Polish education system.