The number of refugees in the Czech Republic is increasing. The first Ukrainian single classes began to operate – ČT24 – Czech Television
The project was prepared by the Ukrainian Embassy together with the Children of Ukraine Endowment Fund and the Rector Emeritus of Charles University, Tomáš Zima, with the support of the Ministry of Education. The grammar school opened five classes for one hundred children on Monday. There will be 23 Ukrainian teachers who have been working at this school for a long time.
According to Zima, children between the ages of about six and 17 can enroll in single classes that will provide education for children in their native language. “In Ukraine, the basic education is eleven years old,” he explained. There will be a class for quarters in the 1st Slovanský grammar school. However, with regard to the current spring holidays in Prague 1, the school this week also offered its premises for another four classes with children from other years, who will move to other schools from next week.
According to Zima, approximately twenty schools in Prague and Brno have applied for the project at this time. “Teaching started in Brno today,” he said. Nevertheless, there is now a spring break, about 200 children can attend one-class classes in two schools. These are Cacovická Elementary School and Údolní Elementary School. According to Zima, he expects that more schools will be added gradually. “Last week we met with colleagues from Ostrava, where teaching should begin in the coming days,” he added.
Today, decorated balloons in the blue-yellow colors of the Ukrainian flag, sweets, drinks, crayons and coloring books were waiting for the fourth graders in the 1st Slavonic Grammar School. Upon arrival, they were welcomed by representatives of the Ukrainian One Class School and Project, together with Minister Gazdík. The mothers accompanied 12 children to the class, who came with their families from different regions of Ukraine. At first they were shouted, but later they dared to start having fun with the adults present. “Hello!” They said goodbye to the minister.
According to Gazdík, hundreds of other Ukrainian children also went to mainstream schools throughout the Czech Republic on Monday. The education system can now integrate about a hundred thousand. He described the fact that children could go to school as an essential condition for their parents’ employment. Czech schools will have to deal with that, he says. He also thanked the teachers, who he said responded well and offered help.
The network of Ukrainian single classes in the Czech Republic will continue to expand. Refugees can register their children on the site Detiukrajiny.cz. Teachers from a number of refugees can also apply for the project.
According to Gazdík, the government could also discuss a bill on Wednesday, which should, among other things, simplify the access of Ukrainians to education in the Czech Republic. They may need to extend the deadline for applying for secondary school entrance examinations and, if they do not have evidence of previous education, they could submit a solemn declaration instead.
The number of refugees has doubled since Friday
On Sunday alone, the Assistance Center for Aid to Refugees from Ukraine at the Prague Congress Center checked in 3,284 people, 180 of whom provided accommodation, Mayor Zdeněk Hřib (Pirates) informed on Twitter.
The Prague City Hall will also provide 250 million crowns from its budget to help refugees. The money will go to humanitarian and material assistance, educating children or providing accommodation and transport, Deputy Mayor Pavel Vyhnánek (Prague Sobě) informed. He will take the municipality’s money from last year’s surplus. The specific use of funds for individual measures will then be approved by the council.
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the capital has registered 11,851 people, and several cookers have taken buses to other, less busy regions. The onslaught at the Prague center has been increasing in recent days. On Saturday, 3017 people checked in there, and on Friday, about 2,600 refugees. The situation does not change on Monday.
“The interest is huge again, as in previous days, perhaps even higher,” says CT editor Barbora Smiešková. “In the past days – on Saturdays or Sundays – they formed queues up to a hundred meters long and people waited in them for hours,” he added, adding that the significant change now is that people were already inside and not waiting outside in the winter.
The Governor of the Central Bohemian Region, Petra Pecková (STAN), and the Mayor of Prague, Hřib, negotiated that additional halls would be available.
The capital planned for the center to be about 2,000 people, so the transfer of people to less busy regions began. Another assistance center will also be added in the Central Bohemian Region – it will open in the cultural house in Příbram.
On Sunday, 4,112 Ukrainian refugees reported to the foreign police or assistance centers, a total of over 46,000.
Refugees have three days to register
Refugees have three days to register with the Aliens Police. If you live in an accommodation facility, the landlord will report it. After that, people have 90 days to process a visa, which they can apply for at asylum and migration policy workplaces throughout the Czech Republic.
Thanks to special long-stay visas issued by the Ministry of the Interior, people from Ukraine will automatically be included in the public health insurance system. They can also obtain a work permit with them. More than 57,000 of these special visas have already been issued internally, on Sunday their number was about twelve thousand the same, the ministry announced on Twitter on Sunday.
The General Health Insurance Company registered 40,000 refugees from Ukraine with public health insurance until Monday morning, and around ten thousand a day in recent days. They can also apply to six other health insurance companies, which have not yet had their employees directly in the contact centers. The state pays the premium for refugees, they are entitled to the same health care as Czech insured persons.
In addition to registration and medical examinations of Ukrainian refugees, assistance centers throughout the Czech Republic also provide accommodation, logistics, humanitarian aid and transport. In the ten days since the start of the attack on Ukraine, which Russia launched on February 24, more than 1.5 million people have fled to neighboring countries.