Accessible school for all

The British Council in Poland has published a report entitled Understanding Teachers’ Needs in Multicultural Classrooms. The report outlines the various challenges facing the Polish education system due to the influx of Ukrainian children and young people following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The analysis of participants’ opinions focuses on identifying key challenges in the system’s structure, language barriers, resilience, and student well-being. The official presentation of the report took place at the British Embassy in Warsaw on 14.03.2024 during an expert meeting attended by representatives of institutions related to the education sector, including representatives of the UNICEF Accessible School for All project.

The report presented an analysis of existing problems, such as teacher shortages, increased student stress, excessive focus on assessment and examinations, difficulties in integrating class teams, and language barriers. The recommendations focused on strengthening psychosocial support mechanisms and creating inclusive, multicultural learning spaces.

The voice of the project representatives took into account the challenges faced by specialist teachers in meeting the diverse educational needs of children and students in mainstream schools. The project leader, Beata Papuda-Dolińska, PhD, emphasized the need for professional development training for this group of teachers due to the high frequency of needs for additional learning support. These interventions are not only targeted at students with disabilities, but also children with difficulties in peer relations, mental health problems (e.g., war trauma, adaptation problems), or migration experiences, highlighting the qualitative complexity of the interventions. The activities planned in the project, such as the “learning-by-doing” process currently implemented for specialist teachers, the module on teaching Polish as a foreign language, and the MHPSS (Mental Health and Psychosocial Support) materials and workshops, respond to identified educational challenges and supplement systemic strategies involving broad school communities.

Link to the report: https://www.britishcouncil.pl/projekty/edukacja/empowering-education-report