How are Ukrainian refugee children learning in host countries? UNESCO’s latest mapping tells key figures and challenges

Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, UNESCO has been working with partners to support the Ukrainian education community. In refugee hosting countries, UNESCO has been working with UNHCR and the Regional Refugee Education Technical Hub for Ukraine to assess the extent to which refugees are included in policy and data systems in refugee hosting countries.

In the recently launched report, UNESCO highlights the key findings from comprehensive policy and data reviews conducted in seven countries hosting Ukrainian refugees: Bulgaria, Czechia, Hungary, Poland, the Republic of Moldova, Romania, and Slovakia.

• Enrolment in national schools remains very low across the seven countries. The estimated gross enrolment rate for Ukrainian refugees in primary and secondary education in the seven countries is 43%, ranging between 4%-59% within each country, meaning that 6 in 10 children are not enrolled in host country schools.
• There are numerous barriers to access education, however language has been highlighted as a key barrier by families in all seven countries. For example, in Hungary, 6 in 10 Ukrainian refugees do not speak Hungarian and in Romania this figure is over 7 in 10.
• An absence of reliable data on learning and safety creates considerable challenges for policy-makers and partners in understanding how to best support Ukrainian learners in host countries and communities.