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The Slovak Chamber of Teachers warns that the state is neglecting linguistical and psychological support for children from Ukraine and has turned to the EU Commission and the UN. The criticism was echoed by the Supreme Audit Office and the Children’s Commissioner, who warned of the risk of a “lost generation.” The Education Ministry rejects the accusations.

Written by Natália Silenská, Euractiv.sk

Currently, around 40,800 Ukrainian children under the age of 18 live in Slovakia, of whom about 10,000 attend Slovak schools. The Slovak Chamber of Teachers has long argued that their rights within the Slovak education system are being violated.

The issue escalated in May, when the chamber filed a complaint and a lawsuit against Slovakia at the European Commission, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), and the UN.

“Despite repeated efforts by the Slovak Chamber of Teachers and appeals to the Education Ministry, there has been no progress in three years — in fact, the situation is getting worse. We are therefore turning to the highest child rights protection bodies to ensure immediate talks and an end to such violations,” the teachers explained.

During August, more Slovak institutions joined the criticism, including the Supreme Audit Office of the Slovak republic and the Office of the Commissioner for Children.

The issue is gaining new weight as of September 2025, when compulsory schooling will begin to apply to refugee children in Slovakia. As Supreme Audit Office critically noted, the neighbouring Czech Republic introduced the requirement as early as autumn 2022.

The Education Ministry, however, denied wrongdoing when speaking to Euractiv Slovakia. It described the chamber’s concerns and legal action as “unjustified.”

Children without guardians and without access to doctors

In a press release issued on 18 August, Children’s Commissioner Jozef Mikloško warned of “deeply troubling findings” about the situation of Ukrainian children in Slovakia.

There, Slovak paediatrician Elena Prokopová pointed to the recurring problem that Ukrainian children with temporary residence often cannot get access to the medical care as doctors are not obliged to take them into their practice. Also, many of the Ukrainian kids lack money for basic living expenses.

“It is often teachers or benefactors who step in to help, providing financial support out of their own pockets. In some cases (…) children even spend weekends sleeping on trains because they have nowhere to go,” the report states. Some dormitories in Slovakia remain closed over the weekend.

Miroslava Mittelmannová from the Human Rights League highlighted legal gaps stemming from the fact that several Slovak laws do not account for the specific status of foreign children: Children with tolerated stay, for example, have no access to temporary refuge, health care, or education if there is no one to file applications on their behalf. 

Currently, Slovakia has identified 5,500 unaccompanied minors. Although they have parents back in Ukraine, many of them cannot come to Slovakia. Therefore, in practice,  children are often represented by one person on the basis of a power of attorney. One representative may be responsible for 50 to 60 children at once.

The situation is deteriorating further, as hundreds of new minors arrive each month to Slovakia through Ukrainian agencies. Parents pay these agencies to bring their children to a safe country and enroll them in school — but the support often ends there, leaving the children without care.

Separate pressing issue, Commissioner Mikloško stressed, is the persisting language barrier — a problem also raised by the Chamber of Teachers.

Why teachers filed the complaint — and how the ministry responds

While the Children’s Commissioner highlights problems Ukrainian children face in their daily lives, the Slovak Chamber of Teachers points to the problems in the education system.

The chamber listed several reasons for filing the complaint against the state. Chief among them were the persistent language barrier, ineffective funding, and the lack of psychological and integration support.

Language barrier leads to isolation and wasted potential

“The Education Ministry has provided no support for refugee children in the language area. There are no guidelines nor documents guide this issue,” the chamber described in a pre-complaint email from April.

It noted cases where teachers forbade children from speaking Ukrainian with their friends, using the argument: “While in Slovakia, speak Slovak.”

Language preparation, the chamber said, has often been reduced to short-term tutoring. According to the Supreme Audit Office, in 2024 only 22 percent of primary schools offered language courses.

As the commissioner stressed, students therefore struggle with subjects that require advanced Slovak, or they end up isolating themselves from their peers.

Incomplete statistics cited by the chamber also suggest that only a small number of Ukrainian refugee children make it into high schools due to the language barrier. UNICEF data further indicate that even among those who do, only few are placed in schools matching their abilities.

“High schools refuse to adapt entrance exams for them, often arguing that demand for spots is already too high. Both officials and some principals have openly said: why should Slovak children be discriminated?” the teachers claim.

They note that the School Act introduced — three years after the start of the Russian war —the option of creating adaptation classes to help foreign children with integration and language preparation. However, according to the chamber, the ministry has not developed “any systemic concept for such classes,” and they will not have financial backing either.

The Education Ministry told Euractiv Slovakia that it has no evidence of high schools refusing to admit refugees who need to take aptitude tests.

“On the contrary, §146 of the School Act recognizes the potential of foreign pupils and creates conditions for their education. It offers language courses and opens opportunities for study at secondary schools under the same conditions as Slovak citizens,” the ministry’s press department stated.

Asked whether it planned to establish adaptation classes without providing schools with extra funding and staff, the ministry responded that it was aware of several such classes being launched in the new school year but could not yet provide precise figures.

It also pointed to support measures such as language courses, tutoring, and adjustments in teaching goals and methods, which will be available to Ukrainian children. 

Support funding that fails to support integration

The chamber further accuses the state of “inefficient — even wasteful — use of structural funds” meant for Ukrainian children. Over the past two years, the ministry received double per-pupil funding from the EU for refugee students.

"We received approximately €100 million from the EU in the education sector, for example. But the money was distributed for school renovations, and (Ukrainian) children received almost no language, psychosocial, or career support," argued the chamber.

Viktor Križo, a representant of Teachers’ chamber and of Inklucentrum — the Center for Inclusive Education, reminded that within this EU funding scheme, the ministry committed to analysing the state of integration of Ukrainian children by the end of the year.

“But nothing has happened so far, and it’s highly questionable how relevant the outcome will be, given that the ministry isn’t responding to our questions on how it plans to set the methodology and questions for the analytical unit,” he told Euractiv Slovakia.

The ministry responded that the analysis is being prepared internally with input from several departments, particularly the Institute for Educational Policy. It includes a spending review and tracks “various instruments contributing to the social inclusion of foreign children.”

Regarding funding, it explained that the EU allocation was tied to “covering education-related costs for Ukrainian children and pupils, while schools could also use the money for other expenses.”

“The massive influx of children was a considerable burden, and simplified reporting was a way to manage the situation,” the ministry said. It stressed that the EU Commission regulation in this case had only one condition: attendance.

“The ministry has no authority to impose any other rules. This was a reward for educational institutions to secure formal participation in education for Ukrainian children. It is a rule that applies to all EU residents,” it added.

Unaddressed war trauma: children at risk of exclusion and radicalization

In its submission to the European Commission, the Slovak Chamber of Teachers also stressed that children traumatized by war are receiving only “negligible psychological support” from Slovak schools.

“All international documents call for this help to be provided in their own language. Yet the ministry has not issued a single guideline, offered any support, or allocated even one euro for these services,” the chamber said, noting the lack of Ukrainian-language diagnostic manuals, therapists, psychologists, social workers, and special educators.

Both the Supreme Audit Office and the Children’s Commissioner agree that this gap could have serious consequences.

Commissioner Mikloško warned: “If the situation is not addressed systematically and in a coordinated way, we risk creating a lost generation of children without proper care, education, or perspective — something that could eventually lead to their radicalization.”

An August report from the Supreme Audit Office reached a similar conclusion: "It is gradually becoming apparent that some children are excluded from education in our school environment. They are at risk of isolation, exclusion, and later, due to their lack of language skills, to the reduced opportunities to find employment, reaching poverty, and other associated social risks.”

Is anything changing?

According to Viktor Križo of the Chamber of Teachers, as of late July “no corrective steps had been taken,” and the ministry had not responded to their criticism. He also pointed to an internal divide within the ministry.

“If we manage to push for any changes in favour of foreign children, it is only with great reluctance from the ministry. The only one who has supported us in this is School Minister Tomáš Drucker (Hlas-SD) himself. Employees, by contrast, are openly resisting,” Križo said.

He praised cooperation with the minister as “excellent”: “We managed to secure adjustments to admission exams and graduation requirements for foreign students, including Ukrainian children, as well as to kick-start adaptation classes and curriculum changes.”

The ministry dismissed talk of internal division, stating that the education of foreign children is being addressed “across the entire organizational structure of the ministry.”

European Commission takes the accusations seriously

Brussels responded to the teachers’ complaint back in June. In a letter seen by Euractiv Slovakia, officials assured that they their concerns “very seriously.”

The Commission confirmed that, partly in response to last year’s warnings from the Chamber of Teachers about ineffective integration, the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) will now require an assessment of how well Ukrainian pupils are being integrated.

On the accusations of inefficient spending, however, the Commission underlined that the only condition for releasing funds is indeed the number of Ukrainian pupils enrolled. The Commission has no evidence that the condition for payment was not fulfilled,” it wrote, while encouraging the teachers to continue the dialogue.

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