FAKE: Poles are bribing school principals so their children don’t have to study with Ukrainian children

A video is being spread online, allegedly published by BBC News. The video claims that Poles are bribing school principals so their children don’t have to study in mixed classes with Ukrainian children. Specifically, it suggests that such incidents were discovered in Rzeszów, Gdańsk, and Katowice. The video mentions that Poles are resorting to these measures due to the poor academic performance and bad behavior of Ukrainian children, even alleging theft in classrooms.

However, this is a fake. BBC did not publish this video, and there were no reports from local police or media about school principals accepting bribes.

This material can not be found on the BBC News website or on the media’s social media accounts. The video doesn’t state where the information about bribery in Polish schools came from. Local media in Rzeszów, Gdańsk, and Katowice have not reported on any incidents of school principals accepting bribes. Moreover, the local police have not reported any such incidents of bribery. There are also no reports online about any problems related to the acceptance of Ukrainian children in Polish schools. Instead, the bribery claims were mainly spread by Russian accounts.

The video, allegedly produced by BBC, started being posted on September 13, while children went back to school on September 2, since September 1 was a Sunday. This means the video was published less than two weeks after the school year started. However, the video claims that Ukrainian children have poor academic performance. This seems odd, as 10 school days are not enough to determine a student’s academic performance.

According to a decision by the Polish government, starting from September 1, 2024, children of Ukrainian refugees must integrate into the Polish education system. Therefore, preschool and school education must take place in Polish schools. Only those students in their final year of Ukrainian school in 2024/2025 will be allowed to continue learning remotely. If parents refuse, starting from June 2025, they will stop receiving payments of over 800 PLN, which the government previously introduced to assist refugees. Currently, around 218,000 Ukrainian children in Poland receive such assistance, 155,000 of whom are of school age.

The law also extends the period of free additional Polish language education for refugee students from 24 to 36 months and introduces the option not to take the eighth-grade exam in Polish language, among other provisions.

The Polish Ministry of Education indicated that around 80,000 Ukrainian children would be attending Polish schools from September 2024, with a significant portion expected to be in elementary schools. Polish people also support the decision to educate Ukrainian children in Polish schools. According to a June poll, 82% of Poles supported this idea. Another poll in August showed that 65.5% of Poles believe that Ukrainian children should study both Polish language and history, as well as Ukrainian language and history in schools. Meanwhile, 28.8% of respondents stated that only Polish language and history should be mandatory.

This obligation for Ukrainian children to study in Polish schools may have “inspired” those spreading fake news to create disinformation. They are attempting to discredit Ukrainian refugees in this way. Previously, we debunked fakes such as claims that Ukrainian refugees allegedly set fire to a pharmaceutical warehouse in Poland or placed a pig’s head in a Berlin mosque.