Ukrainians make up the largest group of foreign students in Czech schools

Students with Ukrainian citizenship currently represent the largest group of foreigners in Czech elementary and secondary schools and the third-largest group of foreign students at universities, after Slovaks and Russians, newly released statistics from the Education Ministry show.

There were 12,758 Ukrainian students in Czech elementary and secondary schools at the end of September 2021. In elementary schools, they made up about 1 percent of all pupils. At Czech universities, there are over 4,000 Ukrainian students, compared with over 8,000 Russians.

With regards to the current tension between Russia and Ukraine, the ministry said it had no information on whether Ukrainian families would like to return to their homeland or remain in Czechia. The ministry did not release any information on the number of Czechs currently studying in Ukraine.

A total of about 963,000 pupils attend elementary schools in Czechia. Of them, some 28,380 foreigners were recorded last year, including 9,646 Ukrainians in late September.

About 433,000 students attend secondary schools. Of them, some 9,750 are foreigners, including 3,112 Ukrainian nationals, which means Ukrainians make up almost one-third of all foreigners attending elementary and secondary schools in Czechia.

Ukrainian students make up one-fifth of foreign students in the Czech Republic's colleges and conservatories (there are 42 and 166 Ukrainians at these types of institutions respectively), which are attended by a total of 3,900 and 18,500 students, respectively. Slovak and Russians outnumber Ukrainians in higher education.

At the end of December, Czech universities registered 4,617 students of Ukrainian nationality, 200 of whom had their studies temporarily interrupted. There were also 68 Ukrainians on short-term study stays in Czechia.

In total, there are some 52,000 foreigners among university students, Ukrainians making up 8.5 percent of them.

Regarding state support for the education and integration of foreigners, one of the main prerequisites is their knowledge of Czech, ministry spokeswoman Aneta Lednova told CTK.

From September 2021, the language support for foreigners in education requires cities to operate at least one elementary school offering courses in Czech.

Czech kindergartens must offer one Czech lesson a week if they are attended by at least four foreigners of preschool age (5 to 6), for whom kindergarten attendance is compulsory.