In June, UNHCR published a report entitled Education of Refugee Children and Youth from Ukraine: An analysis of major challenges and trends based on Multi-Sector Needs Assessment (MSNA) and other data. It covers 7 countries: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia, and shares more limited data on 3 countries where inter-agency data collection capacities were limited: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

The ongoing war in Ukraine has led to one of the greatest forced displacement crises in Europe since World War II, with those displaced from Ukraine currently representing one of the world’s largest refugee populations. The vast majority are hosted in countries in Europe, and are mostly women or children. Access to education for this group remains a major concern: according to the report, children represent around one third (approximately 2 million) of the total refugee population, including 1.4 million of school age. 

The key findings of this UNHCR report include:

• Poland, Germany and the Czech Republic host the largest number of refugee children and youth from Ukraine.

• A significant proportion of the refugee children and youth population from Ukraine remains out of school, but more refugee households are starting to bring children to host country schools.

• There are some gender disparities in enrolment rates and engagement in online or remote education.

• 57% of refugee households surveyed who have not enrolled children at their local school say that the main reason behind this is that the children are participating in online or remote education.

• 14% of refugee households surveyed who have not enrolled children at their local school indicate that language barriers are preventing them from doing so.

• 8% of refugee households surveyed who have not enrolled children at their local school said they were denied a place in a school because there was no space.

• 3 school years have been disrupted by mass displacement as a result of the full-scale war in Ukraine, with a fourth starting in September 2024.