4. situational analysis - forum migracyjne · by agnieszka kosowicz,polish migration forum...

Access to Quality Education by Asylum-Seeking and Refugee Children - Poland Country Report by Agnieszka Kosowicz,Polish Migration Forum

4. SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS

This chapter provides information on the presence of asylum-seeking, refugee and tolerated children in Poland at different levels of their education. The section on cross-cutting issues gives an overview of factors that affect the access to education of the children relevant to this study, regardless of their age.

4.1 Language training—pre-requisite to educationLegal basis: Language training in reception facilities is governed by the Aliens Protection Law and in schools by the Act on Education.

Language training in reception facilities: Language tuition for asylum-seekers is not obligatory. It is organized in each reception centre in Poland, although each centre sets it up differently. Student groups are organized in various ways. There are always groups for younger and older children. For others, language training differs: there are groups for adults, but none for youth. Separate classes for men and women are not the rule. Also, the content and duration of tuition at the centres is not uniform. Depending on the centre, classes are held two to four times a week for 45 to 90 minutes for each group. In most centres, special catch-up classes are organized for schoolchildren, providing them help with their homework.

GOOD PRACTICELANGUAGE TEACHER AS SCHOOL INTERMEDIARY

Classes are sometimes held by a teacher from a school near the one where asylum-seeking children are enrolled. As a peace-building solution, this seems to have an important and positive side effect. The teacher acts as an intermediary in school conflicts and helps the school and reception centre to communicate when difficulties arise. School staff highlight the importance of such a person who—in addition to being familiar with the environment of the school and reception centre—is able to mediate in conflicts and help teachers communicate with refugee and asylum-seeking parents.Recently, a school considered the possibility of employing a special staff member who would be well acquainted with the country of origin of asylum-seeking pupils to help the school address the pupils’ needs.

Some teachers and NGOs note that the tools for teaching are either in short supply or not accessible. They also point out that there are no books to teach children Polish as a second language. While this needs to be looked into further, it is clear that language teachers have no adequate access to teaching tools, even the simpler ones, such as chalk, textbooks and colouring pens. Many teachers have to rely on their own initiative, or on donations, to obtain these, as the reception centre budgets for teaching tools and educational material are limited.

Most Polish language teachers are dedicated to their work. But not all of


them are qualified to teach Polish as a second language. One of the few teachers competent in this area is Elżbieta Fiok at the Lublin reception centre. (Pictured on the left is her class of Chechen boys preparing for a school entrance examination.) In many cases, Polish or Russian language teachers are employed to instruct young asylum-seekers.

Because of the asylum-seekers’ high rate of rotation, the teachers work with a group that is constantly changing. Some parents voiced their concern, with one saying: “my children do not want to attend the lessons, because they keep learning the same things over and over again”. But other parents were satisfied with the quality of the lessons and appreciated the good rapport their children had with the teachers.

At the time of writing, no nationwide language tuition programme was in place for asylum-seekers. A few teachers pointed out that classes in the reception centres were meant to equip children with only the most basic communication skills. One teacher said: “I can barely manage to teach the children the Polish alphabet, and they go to school”. The scope of the material taught during the lessons, however, varies from centre to centre.

A Warsaw primary schoolteacher, Agnieszka Nożykowska, remarked that

The current system does not function well. When the girls ask the teacher during the lesson what the word ‘why’ means, that indicates that for them this lesson makes no sense. The children sit in class but don’t learn anything. They have no idea what is going on. They have to be able to understand at least basic things before coming to normal school.

Among the interlocutors, there was disagreement on what approach to language education would be most effective. Should the children go to normal school as soon as possible (a point of view favoured by NGO social workers), or should they first learn at least some basic Polish at the reception centre (suggested by schoolteachers)? Everyone agreed that in order to improve the present situation, the language training had to be made more intensive. A few hours of tuition every day would be the best solution.

4.1.1 Polish language classes in schoolsIf a school has pupils who do not speak Polish, it is obliged to provide them with extra Polish-language tuition. This is funded by the local administration. For every 15 pupils, the school is entitled to two extra hours of lessons a week. But many schools say that the

• number of lessons are too few to achieve any quick improvement in a pupil’s language competence; and

• children do not benefit from the lessons already available.


Depending on the school, the lessons are provided by a teacher in charge of the asylum-seekers’ class, or by Polish or Russian language teachers. In some schools, extra Polish lessons are a fiction, since the teacher is unable to put together a group of pupils for a class. In other schools, where there are several asylum-seeking children, maintaining discipline is seen as a significant problem since, in the words of a school director: “The asylum-seeking children are a strong group. For the entire day they are distributed among various classes, and when they finally meet together at the Polish language class, they just don’t allow the teacher to work”.

“Strong”, in the directors’ words, is a euphemism for children who are difficult to control. While the children have a close relationship among themselves—since they live in the same reception centre—they relate with difficulty to the teacher. The teacher, who does not speak the children’s language and has neither the skills to teach foreigners nor the training in multiculturalism, finds it difficult to do the job. A solution, in this situation—psychologists believe—would be to improve the quality of language instruction rather than expect the children to become more obedient.

Some teachers in the reception centres and in schools (who are otherwise very committed and have an excellent rapport with the children) have received no training in teaching Polish as a second language, nor in working in a multicultural environment. Further research is needed on the quality and methodology of language training for asylum-seeking pupils. Low quality lessons, or lessons that are inadequate for the children’s needs, act as demotivating factors for all pupils, regardless of nationality or status.

4.1.2 AttendanceA few teachers confess they have no means to make children attend class, and believe that the introduction of compulsory lessons in Polish for asylum-seekers should be given consideration. Edyta Głuchowska, a Polish language teacher at the reception centre in Warsaw/Bielany, expressed her frustration: “I have no power to make them attend, other than persuasion or small contests or prizes I come up with myself”.

Language classes, which are free and open to everyone, are attended by only a few asylum-seekers. The table below presents data collected by URIC in late 2005 on the attendance of asylum-seeking children in Polish language classes in the reception facilities. Data for 2006 is not available. Information on adult students is also not available for all centres. Social workers and language teachers say that only a small number of teenagers take part in the lessons.

The lack of interest in Polish is explained by the asylum-seekers themselves. One asylum-seeking parent was forthright: “I am not interested in the Polish language. I would rather learn English or French. I am not planning to stay in Poland, so I don’t need Polish”.

Table 4: Attendance at language courses in reception centres, 2005

Refugee reception centre Total number of asylum-seekers Number of children attending Polish


(average for third quarter, 2005) language classesBiałystok (Budowlani) 170 10Białystok (Iga) 260 20Czerwony Bór 180 20Dębak 90 Not availableLegionowo 80 23Linin 250 30Łomża 210 48Lublin 150 18Łuków 220 33Moszna 175 24Radom 200 31Siekierki 165 2Smoszewo 160 10Warsaw (Bielany) 440 67Warsaw (Ciołka) 185 6Wołomin 180 14

Source: URIC. Around 50 per cent of all asylum-seekers are children and youth below the age of 18 years.

4.1.3 Self-helpExtra schooling is organized in some centres by the asylum-seekers themselves, offering classes for Chechen children in their history and language. In the Lublin centre, for example, asylum-seekers teach the children Chechen, Russian and Arabic. These self-help initiatives are scarce and irregular, and tend to disappear when those offering the lessons receive an asylum decision. In a few centres, traditional dancing groups for children are organized by the asylum-seekers, and parents sometimes give priority to these dancing courses over normal schooling. According to Katarzyna Jarmołowicz, director of primary school number 247 in Warsaw/Bielany: “We have not seen a certain girl at school for some weeks now, but a couple of days ago teachers saw her on a live TV programme—dancing. This shows that, for some parents, education is simply not a priority”.

The same teacher points also out that there are some very committed pupils among the Chechens in her school and recognizes that stereotypical thinking about asylum-seekers is not sustained by these well-functioning families. Often, it takes only one unmotivated family to create an unfavourable image for the entire group of asylum-seekers at school.

Many who work with asylum-seekers in Poland complain of their lack of incentive and unwillingness to work for their own advantage. Their passive attitude to life is frequently blamed on their desire to go west. To be fair, the asylum-seekers are given few opportunities to be independent or to make decisions by themselves. In most centres, there are no mechanisms to consult the asylum-seekers or involve them in any decision-making regarding the centre.


4.2 Pre-primary education

4.2.1 LegislationOne year of pre-primary schooling is compulsory for all children in Poland, according to article 14 of the Act on Education. Six-year-olds have a choice of spending the compulsory year either in kindergarten or in school, where preparatory classes are organized. For children younger than six years, attendance in kindergarten is not compulsory. Asylum-seeking, refugee and tolerated children have the right to also benefit from pre-primary education under the same conditions as Polish children, that is, on the payment of a fee.

4.2.2 Financial issuesKindergartens, even the “public” ones supervised and co-financed by the local administration, are not free of charge. The fee consists of several components that include a “basic” fee set by a specific kindergarten, as well as a charge to cover the child’s meals or extra lessons, such as in English, gymnastics or others decided by the kindergarten’s management.

4.2.3 Refugee children and children with tolerated stayIn 2006, a group of municipalities decided that refugee children would be accepted in kindergarten, without the “basic” fee. In some kindergartens, children are accepted free of charge, as long as their parents work.1 For refugee parents, neither of these situations provides a satisfactory solution. A large number of refugee families, including those with tolerated status, find it impossible (for financial reasons) to cover even part of the kindergarten’s expenses. Many of them do not work in the initial period after being granted a formal status in Poland, but wish—in spite of this—to learn Polish, attend vocational school or look for work. But these intentions are not seen as a sufficient basis for local authorities to accept refugee children, without charge, in kindergartens. As a result, the children are unable to attend kindergarten, with neither they nor their parents being able to profit fully from the integration programmes.

4.2.4 Asylum-seeking childrenThere are only rare cases of asylum-seeking children attending kindergarten, since parents wishing to enrol their children are required to also cover the cost. As a result, few children are able to attend even the compulsory pre-school year when they reach the age of six.

4.2.5 Lack of school preparationThe compulsory pre-primary year of education was introduced in Poland only recently, and many teachers emphasize its value for children’s development. This is particularly true of children who start their education in a different country and in a different language. First, they have a chance to learn Polish and, second, they can acquire social skills to help them integrate. This is crucial, since asylum-seeking children often lack the necessary skills at school.

Edyta Głuchowska observes that "These children don’t know how to hold a pen or pencil. They don’t know how to draw, how to paint. Maybe this is some side effect of what they have been through: the conflict, the war, the difficult conditions. Because of this, it is more difficult for them to learn how to write”. Sheila Melzac of the United Kingdom, a child psychotherapist specializing in work

1 Reported by Renata Barańska-Czyż, social worker at the Social Assistance Centre in Warsaw’s Bielany district.


with children who are victims of trauma, confirms that the inability to express oneself through creative activity is frequently an effect of trauma. Supporting children’s creativity—through art, for example—is, in fact, helpful for children to overcome their traumatic experiences. An NGO social worker, Agnieszka Włodarczyk, adds: “Many teachers complain about the children’s behaviour. But try to sit quietly for 45 minutes in a situation where you don’t understand what is going on”.

Among the ways to help refugee and asylum-seeking children obtain quality education, one of the essential steps is to ensure—initially—that education at the pre-school level is of a high quality, and accessible. Alien children have far fewer problems later in school if they have first attended pre-school: even one year of pre-school education helps children establish social relations, catch up with language skills and familiarize themselves with the school’s routine. It also helps soothe traumatic experiences that the children may have undergone. Being able to spend time with a group of children of the same age can, in itself, be soothing.

4.3 Primary and lower secondary education

4.3.1 Legal basisThe Act on Education gives refugee and asylum-seeking children, as well as children with subsidiary protection status, the right to free education at the primary and lower secondary levels (article 94a).

4.3.2 PracticeIn 2005, a number of initiatives by URIC, as well as the NGO community, were launched to improve asylum-seeking children’s access to education. Some schools recognized (only in 2006) that they had an obligation to educate asylum-seeking children in their neighbourhood. A few schools, nevertheless, see these children as a problem and try and limit the number they can accept (by organizing difficult entry examinations, for example). Many schools are still not aware that they are obliged to accept refugee or asylum-seeking pupils.

4.3.3 EnrolmentIn September 2006, more than 80 per cent of school-aged asylum-seeking children were enrolled in Polish schools—a significant improvement over the previous year (see table, below). The logistics of this process varies from school to school. Some schools admit alien pupils once a year only (in September). Others do so twice a year, at the beginning of each semester. Yet others admit a new group of alien pupils regularly, even as often as once a month. The following table provides information on children accepted only at the start of each academic year.


Table 5: Asylum-seeking children’s enrolment in primary and lower secondary schools, 2005 and 2006

Refugee reception centre

Average no. of asylum-seekers in

centre

Primary school

September 2005

Lower secondary

schoolSeptember

2005

Primaryschool

September 2006

Lower secondary

schoolSeptember

2006

Number of school-aged

childrenSeptember

2006

Białystok (Budowlani) 170 38 10 34 11 45Białystok (Iga) 260 34 1 59 0 71Czerwony Bór 180 11 0 42 0 44Dębak 90 0 0 9 2 16Legionowo 80 14 0 31 4 35Linin 250 21 0 92 2 105Łomża 210 18 2 41 10 51Lublin 150 8 3 16 0 19Łuków 220 30 3 35 4 46Moszna 175 26 0 30 0 30Radom 200 8 0 8 3 39Siekierki 165 4 6 4 7 11Smoszewo 160 0 0 36 10 46Warsaw (Bielany) 440 31 0 68 11 109Warsaw (Ciołka) 185 11 2 30 3 37Wołomin 180 34 1 24 1 37

Data from URIC.

Enrolment is also a problem for some children who already have a protected status in Poland. Dorota Rosiecka—a social worker in the Powiat Family Assistance Centre in Warsaw responsible for refugee integration—cites frequent occasions where schools refuse to accept these refugee children. They only agree to admit them after the Centre’s official intervention and confirmation that the children indeed have the right to be educated in Poland.

Nearly all asylum-seeking and refugee children lack previous school documentation, which poses a number of problems. These will be discussed in a subsequent section on examinations and certification.

Schools have very diversified approaches to the issue of placing children in specific grades. Some enrol children in grades appropriate to their age. Others consider the children’s level of knowledge, and place the children in lower grades. This latter solution seems to provoke numerous problems. An 11-year-old placed in a class with eight-year-olds—which happens regularly in Poland—is almost certain to provoke conflict. Language barriers, combined with age differences, result in two scenarios: aggression or drop out, or both.


Krystyna Starczewska, the director of a non-public school complex in Warsaw, says:

A teenager is able to catch up with his academic performance sooner or later, but has to study in his age group. You can place such a person one grade lower, but not three or four. The most important thing when you receive an alien pupil is to help him find a place for himself in school. To establish a social network, to enter into the school routine. Success in school will come with time.

In spite of that, many schools place older children in junior classes. It is a widespread practice to put upper secondary school-aged students in lower secondary school because the children either have no academic competence to move to more advanced levels, or because the upper secondary schools are more reluctant to admit alien students. In most cases, assigning children to lower grades in schools (that agree to take them in the first place) is seen as a “lesser evil”.

For young people, this solution clearly does not work well. The teachers report that the dropout rate is much higher among teenage pupils placed in class with younger children. The older children have more problems and are also at a different stage of development. Social relations, friendships and acceptance have a different meaning for teenagers than for seven-year-olds. Edyta Głuchowska notes that

Teenagers feel very uncomfortable when they join a Polish class: they can’t communicate, they feel they are worse, poorer, not as wise, not accepted, not liked. This is very de-motivating. Polish children laugh at them—it is the more painful for the asylum-seekers that they do not understand what is being said.

4.3.4 AttendanceMany interlocutors believe that the question of attendance is the most difficult one. Andrzej Zagwojski, a social worker in the reception centre in Warsaw/Bielany, points out that “The attendance rate is disastrous. Some parents know about the absences of their children in school, but they don’t care. Some others see that the children leave for school. The problem is the children don’t reach school, but the parents are not aware of this”.

The problem is not present everywhere, and not for all children. According to Zagwojski, “Small children go to school more regularly. The problem is with the older ones”. In Lublin, the school directors confirm that “This is not an issue here. The centre is close by, and most children attend”.

The illegal employment of asylum-seekers seems to have a positive impact on their children’s school attendance. Parents who have a regular daily routine impose this routine also on their children. These parents generally cope better with everyday problems and do not feel as helpless while waiting for their asylum decision.

In November 2006, URIC received five letters from schools concerned about the high absentee rates among asylum-seeking pupils. The following table presents information on the children’s attendance from the letters as well as from data from a Warsaw school.


Table 6: Attendance records in select primary schools

Refugeereception centre

Primary school Number of children accepted

No. of children with over 33 per cent absentee rate

Linin Primary school, Coniewo 28 16Linin Primary school, Czachówek 24 16Linin Primary school, Czaplinek 14 11Linin Primary school, Dobiesz 19 9Moszna Primary school number 1, Brwinow 34 12Warsaw (Bielany) Primary school number 247 35 6Data received from schools in November 2006 on attendance rates in September and October 2006.

In this sample group of primary schools, hosting 154 asylum-seeking pupils, there were six children (or 3.9 per cent) who joined, but did not attend school at all. In total, 70 children (45 per cent) missed over a third of school between September and October 2006, and almost all children were absent for at least five days during these two months. In the past, only those children went to school in Poland whose parents really wanted them to benefit from an education. Dropping out of school was an issue then as well, but not on the scale it is now. During the school year 2005-2006—based on data from URIC—255 out of 314 pupils (or 81 per cent) completed primary school, while 23 out of 33 pupils (or 70 per cent) finished lower secondary school. In 2007, about a third of the children have an absentee rate that is so high that it disqualifies them from earning a passing grade. If this situation does not change in some schools, more then 50 per cent of the pupils may fail to qualify for the next grade simply because their rate of absence is unacceptably high. Also, this level of absenteeism makes it impossible for children to make any further academic progress.

At the same time, the other 50 per cent of asylum-seeking children attend school and benefit from their lessons, catching up and making progress.

Photo: Agnieszka Kosowicz

While discussions focus on children with difficulties, there are also children who attend school and learn. In some rooms in the refugee reception centres, the children’s homework table is also the centre of the room. Makka from Chechnya (pictured here) is a good example, with commendable grades and friends at school. During the years of the Chechen conflict, her parents paid for individual, private tuition for herself and her brother. “The schools were exploding, so we paid a teacher to come home”, her mother explained.

Some teachers believe that the current practice of sending asylum-seeking children to school almost immediately after arrival is not a good solution for older children, although it makes sense in the case of the younger ones, aged six to eight years. For older children, a period of adaptation would be helpful to allow them time to get used to the new environment, learn at least some of the new language and, as a result, not feel as isolated when going to school. In


the teachers’ opinion, this would improve attendance and—in the long run—any benefits the children may derive from going to school. At present, according to some Polish language teachers, teenagers often go to school eagerly and with high expectations, only to quit in tears a few months later.

A break before attending school, however, would only make sense if young people were offered intensive language training, since it would make them better able to communicate. Without language training, any delay prior to starting school would simply be a waste of time.

There are cases, too, where parents are unaware of their children’s irregular attendance at school. According to Violetta Kędzierska, manager of the refugee reception centre in Lublin: “The parents often don’t know the school schedule, and don’t follow whether the child should be in school or not. It happens quite frequently that a child leaves for school, but never reaches the classroom”.

Different schools react differently to this problem. Some call the centre when a child is absent for two or three days, while others do not react for months.

Communication between the school and the centre’s administration is limited, with some social workers saying “they are not parents of all those children” and refusing to be involved in the school-parent relations. Communication between the school and most asylum-seeking parents is, therefore, inadequate and—sometimes—non-existent. This situation is an important gap in the current system and a direct result of the understaffing of reception centres. One social worker is incapable of monitoring the school performance of between 100 and 200 children at the centre, in addition to a number of other duties. Any meaningful social work involving parents (necessary to familiarize them with the country’s educational system, their duties as parents, and the duties of the children as pupils) cannot be carried out by one person assisting at least 150 asylum-seekers. In this situation, many asylum-seeking parents have never visited the school that their children attend. They do not know how the school environment functions and are not able to support their children adequately.

4.3.4 BooksAccess to books is a problem for many children, despite the fact that there are legal provisions on this issue. In most reception facilities, books are purchased by the centre’s administration. In others, asylum-seeking parents are required to buy the books and receive a refund. Parents of refugee children and children with a tolerated status have to buy the books themselves, at their own expense. In all the schools visited, books were mentioned as a major problem. Often, some children had not even one book by the end of the semester, which was hard to understand. The reception facilities have a budget to buy books—and claim that they buy them. Yet, the children do not bring any books to school and, without them, experience difficulty in learning and making progress.

4.3.5 PerformanceCiting numerous problems with alien children, almost all teachers point out that this is balanced by the presence of many pupils who are dedicated and motivated. Referring to two Chechen boys in her class, Iwona Wielgo, a first grade teacher in primary school number 247 in Warsaw, said: “I have not one word of criticism for my two boys. I treat them the same as others, and they act the same as others”.


In all the primary schools involved in this research, there were Chechen pupils with good marks who were sometimes also the best in their class. According to Edyta Głuchowska: “I have girls in my class who fight for knowledge. They participate in all school competitions, do extra homework, and really do everything they can to learn”.

The schoolteachers see and respect the fact that there are pupils who really work hard and do well. A schoolteacher in Bielany, Iwona Wielgo, commented: “All the children would do much better, and would gradually catch up, if they attended school and the extra language lessons”. Another teacher, Ms. Bojanowska, said: “It all depends on the parents. When the parents plan to settle in Poland, the children really do study”.

The crucial role of parents in the educational process of their children is true for all children, regardless of their nationality or status. Krystyna Danecka, a school director in Podkowa Leśna, put it succinctly:

The asylum-seeking families are just like Polish families. There are those which function well—and you can tell that they are working with their children. But there are families which do not function. And here is the difference. Polish families with problems have a support system and social workers to help in a difficult situation. The asylum-seeking families do not have this support. They have problems, but no one to turn to.

Again, the problem is linked to inadequate social work in the reception facilities. The asylum-seeking families are in a difficult situation—a situation of exile. The education of their children is only one challenge that the family has to cope with, and it is often not the most important challenge. The tendency to blame parents for the children’s school absences is widespread, but not constructive. The asylum-seeking families need help to support their children, and this assistance is not forthcoming. One school director in Warsaw noted that

The Polish family in crises has services to support it. There are institutions and organizations that help children when the parents cannot meet their needs for some reason. For the asylum-seeking children, there are no such institution, no one, who would feel responsible to help these children.

The director also pointed out that it was the role of the state to support children in case parents were unable to cope. This is also borne out by the Committee on the Rights of the Child’s concluding observations on Poland in 2002, which clearly set out the responsibility of the state to support the children in these situations.

Many teachers believe that, in the reception facilities, it is the social workers who represent the state. But social workers, frequently, have over 100 children in their facility and are unable to fulfil their expected role. Parents are also not perceived as allies who can help solve a difficult situation but are seen, instead, as the reason for it.

When parents are motivated and support their children in benefiting from the educational possibilities that exist, the children quickly adapt to the new school environment, language and friends. The parents say that it is important for them to know what to expect in Poland, and whether they are likely to receive protection. It is also important to see how the family copes with life in the reception facility. The boy in the following story is the son of the community “elderly”: his family is respected in the reception centre, has a high social rank


and believes it has strong grounds for receiving refugee status in Poland. The three children in this family benefit from their schooling and the numerous learning opportunities on offer.

SHAMIL’S STORY: AN ASYLUM-SEEKER IN WARSAW

Shamil is a 10-year old from Chechnya in the Russian Federation. He arrived in Poland in 2005 and now lives with his parents, a brother and a younger sister in one of the reception facilities for asylum-seekers. Before arriving in Poland, the family spent three years in Ingushetia, also in the Russian Federation. With the security situation deteriorating there, they first went back to Chechnya, and then fled to Poland. “I remember going to school wherever we were”, he said. “The first thing our parents did after fleeing from Chechnya to Ingushetia was to send us to school.” Shamil has been in Poland for a year now and is, at present, in the fourth grade. He attends all extra classes possible, including Polish language courses (organized by the relief, development and social service organization Caritas), computer lessons, dancing classes, and his favourite—martial arts. “I am doing fine at school. I have good grades and many favourite subjects: English, Maths. I only have problems with subjects like history or biology—there is a lot of vocabulary that I don’t know, like ‘veins’, for example.”

Both of Shamil’s parents have higher education. “He will be a president; the younger one—a minister of defence; and our five-year-old daughter—a minister of something else,” their mother says, laughing. They laugh, but admit that the education and ambition of parents have an impact on the education of children, as (nearly) everywhere. “Many people from Chechnya never went to school. They don’t realize how important schooling is,” Shamil’s father says. “Also, for our nation, having educated people is very important. We need our children to be educated. I personally don’t know anyone who does not want an education for their children. The thing is, people don’t think about staying in Poland. Many plan to leave—and look forward to educating their children in another country.” In Chechnya, Shamil received top marks at school. Now he is among the good, but not the best students. But he is catching up.

Shamil’s is a story of success. The successes he has already had motivate him to work harder. Some teachers point out that for an alien child it is important to be good at something—and it is the responsibility of the school to highlight the strong points of the child. For Shamil, it is sports.

4.4 Upper secondary education

4.4.1 Legal basisThe Act on Education provides free access to upper secondary school for children of asylum-seekers, recognized refugees and those with subsidiary protection, under the same conditions as Polish children. Unaccompanied children, however, are not included, but can also benefit from upper secondary schooling on a commercial basis (that is, on payment), or if they receive a stipend either from the education ministry or the entity running the school (usually the local administration).

4.4.2 PracticeIn research undertaken on the education of asylum-seeking children2, the Association for Legal Intervention reports that, in the school year 2005-2006, there were no cases of asylum-

2 The research was conducted in 2005, based on questionnaires sent out to schools hosting asylum-seeking and refugee children.


seeking children attending any type of secondary school in Poland. This is confirmed by information received in December 2006 from URIC. Alicja Krzanowska, who is responsible for educational issues at URIC, claims that over the years there have been only isolated cases of asylum-seekers benefiting from secondary education. The NGO data for 2006, reflected in the Standards and Indicators Report prepared by the UNHCR Branch Office in Warsaw, indicates that three refugee children were enrolled in upper secondary school in that year. During the school year 2006-2007, their number seems to be slightly higher, but no data is available.

Explaining this situation, URIC’s director-general Jan Węgrzyn, says:

In the reception facilities, we don’t host children long enough for them to finish primary school and go to secondary school. Anyway, in my opinion, we should focus on providing primary education in the centres and leave secondary education to the initiative of the asylum-seekers themselves.

Alicja Krzanowska adds that “Providing secondary education to asylum-seekers is much more complicated. First, they have to learn the language. And many do not want to. Because of this, they cannot be accepted in secondary schools”.

Teachers and social staff refer to several obstacles that prevent asylum-seekers from receiving a secondary education. These are:

• language: secondary schools require students to speak Polish. The pupils are accepted on the basis of a final examinations in lower secondary school;

• education gap: for pupils, it is much more difficult to overcome the gap in knowledge, which many have after several years of missed schooling;

• motivation: many pupils find it hard to overcome their difficulties, and tend to drop out of school; and

• school rankings: there is heavy competition among secondary schools to recruit good pupils, based on academic performance. Because foreign pupils need time to catch up, and initially receive lower grades, the schools are reluctant to accept them.

The fact is that there are no schools ready, or able, to teach 16- to 17-year-olds who have recently arrived in Poland and do not speak the language. For public schools, they are an overwhelming challenge: the needs of the youth and the possibilities of the schools simply do not match. For youth, an individual approach is essential. And Polish public secondary schools seem not to be able to offer them this individual attention. The isolated cases of refugees who benefit from higher education are those who have been in Poland long enough to learn the language. For the youth who do not speak Polish, the country’s education system has nothing to offer.

GOOD PRACTICEMIRACLES AT THE RASZYŃSKA SCHOOL


In Poland, there is only one secondary school which welcomes refugees and asylum-seekers who do not speak Polish. It is a non-public school complex, run by Krystyna Starczewska, its director. The complex consists of four schools at the lower and upper secondary levels, based in Warsaw (one of them on Raszynska street). It has the status of a civic school—which means that its purpose is to provide quality education—and it is not-for-profit. The school is funded by parents. Six per cent of the school fees is spent on stipends for children with specific needs, including refugee and asylum-seeking children. In each class, there are two places for these children. Parents can also sponsor the entire cost of educating another pupil in need—which also happens—allowing more children to benefit from the education available. The school accepts asylum-seeking children who are referred to it by a children’s home hosting separated asylum-seeking children or by PAH, the Warsaw-based NGO working with asylum-seekers and refugees. It is the only school in Poland which provides an education for separated asylum-seeking children. First, all children attend language courses. They are offered extra lessons, depending on their individual needs. Thus, for example, students speaking English benefit from English language lessons. When they are able to communicate in Polish, they are offered additional Polish language classes, gradually broadening the choice of subjects open to them.

The director of the school believes that students have to be successful at school to find the motivation to catch up. To help children present their skills and knowledge to other pupils, the alien children are given tasks that use their unique skills and abilities. “They give us projects to do about Africa, about our cultures. People are very friendly and kind. If I sit alone during a break, always someone comes, sits with me and chats. I don’t know how it is in other schools, but I think this school is very special,” said Ahmet, an asylum-seeker from Somalia. “We know the director cares for us—she comes around and asks how we do all the time. All the teachers speak English, everybody here speaks English.” Ahmet has a lot of catching-up to do because, in Somalia, he had almost no education. “Now I learn only English and Polish, sometimes for two hours, sometimes six, a day. I don’t have normal lessons, like mathematics or biology, because I don’t speak the language well enough. I think I just learn the languages, and then continue with other things. I want to be a computer engineer. I love computers.” At this school, there are no problems with the pupil’s attendance, performance or assessment. If necessary, children repeat the same grade, with an individualized schedule, until they are able to catch up with the others. Human relations at this school are exceptional. This is perhaps because the school director has a vision that many of her teachers share. They believe that the school should be a place to teach young people not just mathematics or history, but civic values, virtue, respect for human beings and the ability to overcome differences. This school has an ambition to raise good citizens who are able to form a mature, responsible society. In their perception of the world, an alien pupil who does not speak Polish is not a burden, but a person who needs individual attention. And all they do is provide this attention. In planning for the 2007-2008 academic year, the Raszynska school has also decided to introduce lessons on Islam for its Muslim pupils. The staff of public schools claim that the “experience” of this school cannot be duplicated in the public school system (which is more bureaucratic) because there are usually no funds for the individual attention that is provided by the Raszynska school. Still, many elements of this approach are now used in public schools. Further analysis is needed to see how the Raszynska philosophy can be introduced to other schools in the country.

The good example of this school shows that quality education can indeed be provided for asylum-seeking, refugee and other alien children in Poland. This school is undoubtedly different from the average Polish public school. It does not depend on the state for funding; it can introduce novel solutions, depending on the needs of the pupils, without approval from supervisory bodies; and it can afford to provide alien pupils with individual attention.


At the same time, the status of the civic school has limitations. There is no access to state funding, for example. It is not realistic to expect parents, who pay tuition fees for the education of their own children at this school, to also pay for the education of other children in need. There are limits to the individual generosity of these parents.

Any discussion on the difficulty of hosting alien pupils frequently focuses on funding. While funding is important, there are aspects of the work of the Raszynska school that could be duplicated in other educational establishments without additional cost. These include, for example:

• approaching children individually, and drawing up individualized academic curricula;

• creating the possibility for alien children to be good at something, and to enjoy their school success; and

• involving alien children in the life of the school and nurturing positive relations between them and their Polish colleagues.

Some public schools have, in fact, adopted this approach, but at the primary educational level. There are schools that are able to analyze the individual needs of alien pupils and provide them with the assistance they need. It is not easy—the schools admit—as it usually requires the cooperation and commitment of many teachers. But it is possible.

4.5 University and postgraduate studies

4.5.1 Legal basisThe Act on Education guarantees refugees free access to university and postgraduate study, and to academic research. Asylum-seekers and those with tolerated status also have access to the same education, but for a fee.

4.5.2 University educationIn 2005-2006, there were isolated cases of asylum-seekers studying in Polish universities. Some of the asylum-seeking students were from Belarus. They were accepted by Poland’s academic institutions without a problem and free of charge, in line with the country’s political declaration to support Belarusian students dismissed from their universities for political reasons. The universities in Poland occasionally also waive fees and accept other asylum-seekers without charge.

The number of refugees benefiting from tertiary education is also small. According to UNHCR’s Standards and Indicators Report for 2005,3 there were only 17 refugee students in the academic year 2005-2006, of whom 10 were girls.

Agnieszka Włodarczyk reveals: “I do not know one refugee who got to university just by himself. Each and every one needed help to write appeals to the university administration to be accepted, sometimes without exams”.

3 Based on NGO information.


These students mention two sorts of problems that are significant: first, convincing the university that they should opt out of an examination (the support of an NGO is useful in resolving this issue); and, second, coping with the language. As one refugee student put it:

I can speak Polish in dealing with everyday problems. I have been in Poland for many years, I feel comfortable here. But passing exams in this language is really a challenge. There is still so much specialist vocabulary I have to learn. It is like studying two things at the same time: the law and the language.

For some refugees, a further problem is their economic situation.

Until recently, another group of refugee students found itself in a different situation, which is described by Małgorzata Gebert, head of the PAH Refugee Counseling Center: “We have met many foreign, mainly African, students who have applied for asylum when they were already studying in Poland. During their studies, the conditions in their countries of origin had changed and they had nowhere to go back to.”

This group of students had fewer problems with education than with the legal status in Poland. They already spoke Polish and were familiar with the education system. At present, no cases of students applying for refugee status have been reported. It is significant that the majority of refugee students over the years have been medical doctors.

4.5.3 Postgraduate educationAt the time of writing, no asylum-seekers are known to have benefited from postgraduate education in Poland. According to information from the Refugee Counseling Center, two recognized refugees (one female, one male) studied for a doctoral degree in 2005.

4.6 Vocational training

4.6.1 Legal basisThe Act on Education, in article 94a(2) grants the children of asylum-seekers, recognized refugees and those with a tolerated status the right to vocational training under the same conditions as Polish citizens. Unaccompanied minors are, once again, not included.

4.6.2 PracticeAt the time of writing, no data was available on the number of aliens in vocational education. In 2006-2007, two major NGO initiatives on vocational training for asylum-seekers are being carried out. The first, called “You Can Learn to Understand” (Możesz uczyć się rozumieć/MUR), is coordinated by PAH in the Linin reception centre and NGO day room in Warsaw; and the second, known as @lterCamp, is coordinated by the Polish Red Cross in the Czerwony Bór reception centre. Both partnerships are funded by the EU’s EQUAL programme.

Under these integration schemes, many recognized refugees and persons with a tolerated status have the chance to benefit from the growing numbers of vocational training courses organized by the authorities or the NGO community (with almost all being funded by the EU). Unfortunately, it is not common to see teenagers participate in these initiatives.


A large majority of beneficiaries of vocational training are adults, but their numbers are also very low. For example, a tiling course organized for asylum-seekers in Linin in late 2006 attracted only three of the 250 inhabitants of this centre. In the same centre, only a few women take part in courses in hairdressing and sewing. Motivating these adults to take advantage of the vocational training options available is very difficult—although, of course, there are exceptions.

4.7 Education of children and youth with specific needsThe education of asylum-seeking children with special educational needs seems to be dealt with in a very uneven and ad hoc manner.4 The representative of URIC in charge of children and education cites two examples in the last five years of children who have benefited from special education (one of the children was deaf, the other had a serious hearing problem). At the same time, social workers and the NGO community believe that disabilities and other child development disorders are quite common, indicating that there are children in reception facilities who, because of their disability, do not benefit from any education at all. In the hearing impairment cases, the children were assisted by associations or schools specializing in their particular disability which paid for a hearing device and for sign language classes for the parents, and enabled the children to join special education schools.

4.7.1 Diagnostic problemsOne of the problems that teachers draw attention to is the reluctance on the part of some parents to diagnose children who may have learning difficulties or health problems that affect their education. In Warsaw/Bielany, primary school number 247 specializes in teaching children with extra needs, such as Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorders (ADHD), physical handicaps, emotional disturbances, and so on. Its director spoke of a girl who had to repeat her first grade because of an eye problem: “It took the school two years to convince the mother to take this girl to an eye doctor. She missed a year because she did not see the letters on the blackboard”.

In accordance with Polish law, parents have to agree to the diagnosis. Many parents seem to be reluctant to do so, insisting that the children attend “normal” school. The NGO social workers say that certain parents are afraid of diagnosing a child, fearing that the child will be taken away and put in an institution. Many parents (in common with their Polish counterparts) are anxious because their children will be stigmatized if sent to a “special school”. The schools face these fears frequently. But while it is easier to explain the nature of the disability to a Polish parent—with whom the school has a shared language—communicating sensitive or complex messages to someone who does not speak Polish is a challenge.

Another difficulty is in the inability of diagnostic centres to run necessary tests and exercises to determine the special needs of children with whom they have no language in common. Illustrating this, Małgorzata Gebert says: “Three Somali girls, when they were about to finish

4 Idem. This was also noted by the Committee on the Rights of the Child in its concluding observations in 2002. Often, children living with disabilities are not given equal access to school, including vocational school, in Poland. The Committee, accordingly, recommended that this issue be addressed.


primary school, had undergone this diagnosis. By then they had learned Polish. And it was only then that we learned that one of the girls had a slight intellectual handicap”.

4.7.2 Psychological problemsSome children arrive in Poland with severe traumas. For them, psychological counselling is necessary if they are to benefit fully from their education. This is often not the case. There are currently three NGO psychologists working with asylum-seekers and refugees, but the needs are much greater. There are children who require psychological counselling or therapy who are not assisted.

Katarzyna Fenik, a psychotherapist at the Nobody’s Children Foundation in Warsaw, points out that traumatic experiences have an impact on how a child develops academically. Trauma slows down a child’s capacity to learn. It also affects the way a child communicates with other people, sometimes making it difficult to voice problems or feelings.

The two stories, below, illustrate how the psychological condition of a child affects the ability to learn. Both boys—asylum-seekers from Africa and Asia—dropped out of school at a particular point. The one who received encouragement and support, and whose needs were identified and addressed, attended school at the time of writing and was on his way to prospering in life.

The other had a more dramatic experience in the past, and—in addition—did not find the understanding or support, either in school or when he quit school. His needs went unnoticed and unattended to. When he dropped out, there was no one to help him return to school or find an alternative education. He has quit his schooling, for the time being.

THE STORY OF MOHAMEDAN UNACCOMPANIED MINOR FROM AFGHANISTAN

He was 11, the first son of a local imam. They lived in Afghanistan and Mohamed had everything he could have: the best available education at the Koranic school, a respected family, a father with high social status. Then, his father was killed. Fearing for the child’s life, his cousins took him to the Islamic Republic of Iran. He was placed in a children’s home, run by an international organization. But shortly afterwards, the facility was closed down and the boy went back to his home country. He worked in a hotel close to the border. For six months, he did not leave the building, fearing he would be killed, if found. His next attempt to leave Afghanistan was from the north. For some time, he smuggled people to the countries bordering Afghanistan to the north. He was 12 years old at the time. At some point in his life, he does not say when, he was tortured and beaten. His entire body is scarred. Then, a few years ago, he decided to leave Afghanistan. He went to the Russian Federation. He has few good memories of that time, having to sleep in a metal container in temperatures of minus 30 degrees Celsius.

When he arrived in Poland, he applied for asylum and was placed in a children’s home in Warsaw. Life seemed to sort itself out somehow, and he was enrolled in a secondary school where the tuition was in English. He went to school, but it did not work out for him. There was not much in common between his own life experience and that of his schoolmates’. Because he did not understand English well enough, it was a torture to sit in class hour after hour, and he just stopped attending. His asylum application was rejected; he appealed; and it was rejected again. He re-appealed, and now waits for the final decision. Mohamed is now 19. He does not study and works as a cook in a Warsaw fast food shop, located in an underground passage. At present, his life is easier. He works only a few hours a day, usually from four to nine in the morning, preparing food for the entire day. It is


better than what he had until very recently—fifteen hours of work a day, and regular visits to hospitals when he cut his hands chopping food. You can cut yourself easily, if you chop 200 kilogrammes of vegetables a day. He would like to have his own restaurant and be his own boss.

THE STORY OF TOM AN UNACCOMPANIED MINOR FROM WEST AFRICA

Tom was eight when he saw his father killed. His mother had disappeared earlier. He was taken care of by an older brother who motivated him to study, but soon life for the two of them became dangerous. They fled their village. Tom worked as a translator and studied in a secondary school. He is bright and learns quickly. Soon the boys had to run away again. Tom took a flight to Europe. In Poland, he applied for asylum and was placed in a children’s home in Warsaw. He found the French Institute in Warsaw and spent all his days there, reading at the library. The staff in the children’s home helped him get into a Polish-French high school. “This school put enormous effort to set up an individualized path of education for this child,” Przemko Radwanski, his caretaker said. But, soon after, Tom received a negative decision on his refugee status application. He stopped going to school—he did not think it made sense in his situation. When Radwanski finally learned about it three months later, the school was no longer welcoming. It requested Tom to study Polish before he could be taken back. He did and, in six months, he learned to speak the language. The school was impressed, but did not take the boy back after all. The reason was that, in the meantime, he had reached the age of 18 years.

He was admitted to the non-public school in Raszynska, and was studying there for the first year at the time of writing. Again, an individual educational plan was arranged for him. He is very good at languages (he speaks five), but not so good in the sciences. So he attends classes with other pupils and gets some individual tuition as well. Next year, he will join the regular first grade at the upper secondary school. Tom goes out with friends, acts in a refugee theatre group, plays football and studies. He is catching up at the school quickly. In the future, he wants to go to Africa and live and work there.

Psychologists also note that the most important element in “curing” traumatic experiences is to form a deeper relationship with someone who can be trusted. This is particularly true of children. To get over their trauma, young people need friendship with an adult, someone who can give advice and support. This relationship may develop with a caretaker or teacher. Tom was lucky to find a friend in his caretaker. Mohamed was not.

Psychological problems also affect the relationship between parents and children. Some parents are not able to support their children adequately, being traumatized themselves. Karine Le Roch, head of the Médecins Sans Frontières mission in Warsaw5 explains:

Many asylum-seekers we talk to are still in a state of war, mentally. For them, reality is the constant fight for life—that is, for refugee status, or for escape to the west. In this life-and-death situation, people see priorities differently. They don’t think rationally, from your point of view. For them, one thing is important, and that is status. This is what they focus on. Education is not a priority. It is not a life-and-death issue for them, so they don’t pay attention to it at all.

5 The Médecins Sans Frontières mission in Poland was closed in December 2006.


For Polish schools—unaware of the traumatization of the parents—this attitude to education in Poland is incomprehensible. It is also hard for teachers and social workers to acknowledge the perception of life by a few teenagers that has resulted from their trauma. Marzena Guzicka, of the children’s home in Warsaw, illustrates this:

We had a Chechen boy last year here, 10 years old, who kept saying that his goal in life is to kill Russians. He was not interested in schooling. He said that he made up his mind on what he wants to do in the future. But after a year here, he came to me and said: ‘I don’t want to kill anyone any more’. This was our success with this child.

The low motivation of the pupils is also frustrating for many teachers. Psychologists believe that this frustration is ill-directed. For Fenik, “The school, and helpful teachers, can be the only chance for the children to meet someone who does not have a picture of the world affected by war”. Przemko Radwanski, of the Academy of Special Education in Warsaw, observes:

Many children come to Poland with very severe trauma, with a shock that they still live through. Some have seen the murder of their parents. Some have experienced extreme violence, or have witnessed it. Those experiences have a tremendous impact on how the children feel and how they think. They need stability and time to overcome what they lived through, to start coping with life again.

Only some teachers are able to see the problem this way. To develop constructive support for the children, schools need to understand the psychological aspects of being a refugee. Currently, many teachers are upset with their pupils because they do not behave like Polish children. The children (in turn) do not find the support that they desperately need from the teachers.

4.8 Tuition in the national language

4.8.1 Legal basisThe Act on Education gives pupils the right to develop their cultural identity (including language). In the case of asylum-seeking, refugee and tolerated pupils, the school has no obligation to provide language tuition. It is required, however, to supply free space for diplomatic missions or cultural associations willing to provide such lessons.

4.8.2 PracticeIn practice, no school hosting asylum-seeking or refugee children is reported to have assured the children of the possibility of learning their own language. No case has been reported, either, of an association ready to provide such tuition. Some language tuition in their national language is given by asylum-seekers at the reception centres. These initiatives, based on voluntary work—a small financial remuneration is sometimes provided by the centre’s management—are very irregular and disappear when asylum-seekers who provide these courses leave the centre.


In spite of this, the legislation referred to above functions well in the case of national minorities in Poland because the legal guarantees for national minorities are much stronger, and the sources of funding are specified.6

In 2005, tuition in the language of national and ethnic minorities was provided in 702 primary schools in Poland (an increase from 120 in 1990).7 The example of the Roma is particularly noteworthy due to the traditional reluctance of some Roma groups to send children to school, resulting in the inability of many Roma children to speak Polish. A complex national effort to improve the level of education of the Roma has been developed in recent years. Additional teaching assistants have been recruited to support Roma children in class when their spoken Polish is not proficient. The teaching assistants (from the Roma community itself) act as intermediaries between the Roma and Polish children, and between the Roma children and their teachers. In 2005-2006, the Roma language was taught to Roma pupils in 316 primary, 106 lower secondary and eight upper secondary schools.

It is also interesting that the detailed report on education by the Central Statistical Office of Poland provides information even about individual cases of children receiving tuition (for example, in Ukrainian) in a particular technical school, or on individual Roma children benefiting from vocational training. But this report fails to mention either the asylum-seeking children (627 of whom were enrolled in primary and lower secondary schools in September 2006, according to URIC) or refugee children. In a statistical overview of the Polish educational system, refugee and asylum-seeking children are simply not reflected.

As Grażyna Płoszańska emphasizes, the approach to the issue of educating Roma children was possible only because of the meaningful high-level cooperation between a number of partners and, notably, the Roma themselves. Similarly, extensive legislation on the rights of national and ethnic minorities in the context of education is a result of cooperation and dialogue between the Ministry of Interior and Administration, MENiS and the Council for National Minorities, representing the interests of minority groups. No such dialogue is now present in the case of asylum-seekers and persons who are granted protection. As a result, the schools are unable to involve parents in decisions on how to improve the situation and look for solutions to the children’s problems.

6 Act on National and Ethnic Minorities and Regional Language, 6 January 2005, Dz. U., number 17, item 141. 7 Some of the languages taught—including Armenian, Belarusian, German, Greek, Hebrew, Kashubian,

Lithuanian, Roma, Slovak and Ukrainian—are spoken by national and ethnic minorities in Poland, as defined and specified by the Act on National and Ethnic Minorities and Regional Language. The act also indicates one regional language, Kashubian.

4. situational analysis - forum migracyjne · by agnieszka kosowicz,polish migration forum...

Documents