Education and recognition of qualification criteria

Children's access to upbringing and education

Children from Ukraine who have been granted temporary refuge in Slovakia are asylum seekers or asylum seekers are not admitted to schools on the basis of administrative proceedings, but are only „enrolled“ in the school and the relevant year by the headmaster of the relevant school. This is a classification without an admission decision (ie not on the basis of an admission procedure).

The principal has a duty to place such a child in the class and class. The principal makes the assignment to a specific year on the basis of verification of the child’s language skills. The deadline for the inclusion of such a child is three months, but the Ministry of Education recommends to act immediately. For the inclusion of a child, it is important whether the procedure for granting temporary asylum or asylum has begun and not whether an extradition decision has already been taken.

The director is obliged to place the child, but at the same time he must respect the highest numbers in the class and at the same time the „operating capacity“ specified in the operating rules. The director may refuse to place a child from Ukraine in a primary or secondary school only in the case of insufficient capacity if the relevant Regional Public Health Office does not agree to increase it.

If the school does not have sufficient capacity or needs to set up a new classroom, it is necessary to contact the regional school administration office. The parent of the child or another person may do the same. Contact details for individual regional offices are available here.

According to the Ministry of Education, these children do not attend compulsory school.

Schools receive a one-off grant of 200 euros for aids and other materials to educate children from Ukraine. However, schools do not receive normative funding for these children or any other allowances. They can request them in a conciliation procedure.

Children from Ukraine who are enrolled in school and at the same time in material need are entitled to free lunches. The school’s subsistence costs for these children can also be reimbursed.

What parents must do who want to enroll a child in school

Detainees from Ukraine who want to place a child in school must proceed in the following steps:

1. Apply for temporary refuge, asylum or subsidiary protection. An electronic form can also be used, which speeds up the application process.
2. Find a school near your residence address (or founder or regional education authority)
3. Submit to the school proof of temporary refuge, asylum or subsidiary protection, or proof of the commencement of this procedure
4. Apply for enrollment in school
5. Obtain a Child Health Certificate form from the school head (the form can be found in the line provided in this document on page 2)
6. See a pediatrician in the district where the school is located. Upon agreement with the school management, it is possible to undergo a medical examination by another pediatrician.

Specifics of admission to kindergartens

The conditions for admitting children to kindergartens are similar to those for enrollment in primary school. Children are enrolled in kindergartens and are not accepted by decision in administrative proceedings.

If the child’s parent requests full-time upbringing and education, if there are no objective reasons to do so, the child is included in full-time upbringing and education.

The procedure for enrolling a child is the same as for primary schools (see above).

Mandatory vaccination information is also required at the medical examination. Physicians are informed that they should assess the vaccination status of these children and that they must also provide information on compulsory vaccination to confirm the child’s medical fitness, e.g. both the words „… vaccination status not verified“ … and „vaccination not verified as he was not allowed to inspect the vaccination card“ is an indication of compulsory vaccination.

The Ministry of Education does not issue a certificate of completion of pre-primary education to these children (more info here).

The principal is obliged to place the child in kindergarten, but at the same time he must respect the highest numbers in the class and at the same time the capacity specified in the operating rules. The principal may refuse to place a child from Ukraine in kindergarten only in case of insufficient capacity, if the relevant RÚVZ does not agree with its increase.

The kindergarten in which the legal representative of the handicapped child is interested in enrolling and the child’s legal representative will contact the relevant counseling and prevention facility will continue to follow the recommendations of this facility. If the relevant counseling and prevention facility recommends the child’s enrollment in kindergarten as a child with a disability, the kindergarten will classify him / her, provided that he / she has free capacity.

What will help the school with the initial adaptation of children

After the child starts school, it is very necessary to have a conversation between the school principal or teachers or members of the support team with the child’s parent and the child himself. The aim of such a conversation is primarily to build trust between the school and the child. Interviews should focus on the child’s situation, his or her level of knowledge, but especially on his or her hobbies, needs, specifics, which the school should know about and which will facilitate the adaptation process. It is important to provide interpretation.

It is also very important to prepare the class for the arrival of a new classmate in order to avoid potential tensions or conflicts. Slovak children also have questions, fears, feel insecure and it is very important to prepare them for the arrival of a new child.

At the same time, it is possible to agree with the children on support and assistance to new classmates from Ukraine, the creation of a system of „accompanying peers“, the so-called buddies. It is important that it is not just one child here, as it can be very challenging. It is recommended to rotate these children and not force them to do what they do not want.

If the school has a supportive education team, this is a great help for the child’s adaptation. It is good to identify at least one „confidential adult“ that Ukrainian children can come to whenever they need to. This is good to do even if the school does not have a school support team.

It is also important to keep in touch with parents about the child’s adaptation process, the needs and challenges that children face. The aim is to maintain mutual trust and manage the adaptation process.

More about how to proceed in adapting a child can be found here or here.

Education

The topic of educating the children of foreigners has long been underestimated in Slovakia, despite the fact that even before the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, several thousand children from various countries attended primary and secondary schools. Children of foreigners have several specific educational needs, which is also related to the needs of the schools that educate them. Examples of such needs are:

• language education (teaching Slovak as a so-called second language),
• responding to the cultural and social specifics of these children (intercultural education and communication)
• psychological support for children, including the identification of the specific educational needs of these children
• methodological support in the form of materials, aids, textbooks and the like
• staff support – creating school support teams, employment opportunities for teaching assistants for these children and the like

Section 146 of the Education Act stipulates that children of foreigners (ie children with a residence permit or an asylum seeker) are provided with upbringing and education, food and accommodation under this Act under the same conditions as citizens of the Slovak Republic. The law also stipulates that Slovak language courses are organized to remove the language barrier. Teacher education is provided professionally, methodically and organizationally by the Ministry of Education.

In the past, several studies have shown that support for the education of foreign children was insufficient and schools were left to fend for themselves in the integration of foreign children.

According to these researches, state language courses, which are financially provided by the district office in the region’s headquarters, were insufficiently used by schools, and many schools did not even know about this possibility. At the same time, there was a lack of support for coping with the specific needs of these children, teachers were not sufficiently prepared for their education and did not receive sufficient methodological support for integration. The readiness and sensitivity of teachers to work in an intercultural environment also appeared to be insufficient.

Current situation

After the outbreak of war in Ukraine and the related increase in the number of people fleeing Ukraine, the number of children in Slovak schools jumped in two months. At the end of April, there were approximately 30,000 children aged 0-17 with temporary refuge status in Slovakia.

Approximately 7,000 children attended primary and secondary schools during this period. Current estimates are that only about 37% of children in a given age group who have temporary refuge in Slovakia attend primary schools. A certain part of children is also educated within the distance education directly in the education system of Ukraine, but there are no more detailed data. It is similar with kindergartens – we do not have exact data on the number of children in regular kindergartens – only information about the insufficient capacity of kindergartens is known, which increases the tension between Ukrainian and Slovak families.

There are a number of issues related to the education of children from Ukraine that need to be addressed in the short, but especially in the medium and long term.

According to the Ministry of Education, children are not admitted to schools, but only enrolled, so they are not accepted in administrative proceedings as regular primary school students. At the same time, according to the same source of the ministry, students do not meet compulsory school attendance. Thus, schools do not receive adequate funding for the education of these children, which are, for example, tied to normative funding. If a school enrolls a child from Ukraine, it is practically only entitled to a one-off allowance of € 200 to cover the increased costs of educating these children. The school is obliged to include such a child, but only up to the maximum capacity stipulated by law. Should this capacity be exceeded, schools should contact the regional school administration. The school should ensure the language training of these children by „entrusting the school staff member with the implementation of Slovak language courses“. Subsequently, the school asks the regional office to provide funding for this course.

The State Pedagogical Institute, the Ministry of Education, as well as many non-governmental and other organizations have prepared a number of materials to help schools integrate children. Many of these materials are extremely important and useful and largely replace the shortcomings of support measures from previous years.

Nevertheless, schools for the integration of children alone remain without significant systematic support and financial coverage from the state. The € 200 contribution cannot cover all school costs for educating these children (including the need to fund additional teachers, support teams, psychological support, but also, for example, an increase in energy if the school accepts a higher number of these children).

What needs to be done in the medium and long term

First of all, the situation in the area of ​​compulsory school attendance and admission of children to regular education is very unclear at the moment. Compulsory school attendance is the exercise of a child’s right to education. As less than half of children currently attend school, it is necessary to ensure the provision of education to all children who have a temporary shelter or other type of residence in Slovakia and do not attend compulsory school elsewhere (for example, as a distance in Ukraine). From 1 September 2022 at the latest, it would be necessary to clarify and ensure long-term education. This is also related to the provision of adequate funding from the state.

Secondly, it is important to ensure quality language education to compensate for language differences and to create an effective system of education of Slovak as a second language, both for children from Ukraine and for all children of foreigners attending Slovak schools.

Another area is quality methodological support for the integration of children from different backgrounds – identification of specific educational needs, provision of quality intercultural education, provision of quality adaptation courses to overcome initial barriers in children’s education (classroom and team preparation, school orientation, communication with children and Similarly). In this area, it is important to set up and fund school support teams (psychologists, special educators, assistants, social educators and others) so that the adaptation process does not lie solely on the shoulders of the teachers themselves.

Ukrainian school online

Online education

Ministry of Education of Ukraine https://mon.gov.ua/ua  

Whole Ukrainian timetable: https://mon.gov.ua/ua/vseukrayinskij-rozklad 

Other forms of online education
https://vop.gov.sk/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Information-educational-sources-for-Ukrainian-children-en.pdf