UK apologises to Ukrainian child refugees who were told to study Russian

The UK has apologised to Ukrainian child refugees who were told to study Russian in English schools, as it launched funding for a new GCSE in Ukrainian.

Ukrainian children who were forced to seek refuge in the UK after Vladimir Putin’s invasion in 2022 say it was “insulting” that their teachers suggested they study Russian in the absence of a GCSE in Ukrainian.

Announcing the new qualification, the schools minister, Georgia Gould, said: “So many students were pushed into having to do Russian. I’m really sorry that they were put in that position. It’s really important that they will have access to a Ukrainian GCSE.”

The new qualification, which will be ready in England in 2028, is being developed by the AQA exam board, with the help of a £340,000 grant from the Department for Education.

It comes after years of lobbying from the Ukrainian government and Ukrainian community groups on behalf of more than 30,000 Ukrainian children who have fled to the UK. In a letter to the DfE in 2024, the education ministry in Kyiv said: “We are deeply concerned that due to the lack of Ukrainian GCSE, many Ukrainian children are being pressured by their school staff to pass the Russian GCSE.”

Gould said: “It was one of the Ukrainian government’s asks of us that we deliver a Ukrainian GCSE, and one of the asks from the community and young people. We’re really proud to be able to do it, and proud of that partnership with the Ukrainian government.”

The Ukrainian language has been at the cultural frontline of the conflict with Russia. Putin has banned Ukrainian books and the teaching of Ukrainian in land Russia has occupied.

Gould said: “Whether it’s military support or this the kind of cultural support, our message as a British government is we stand absolutely steadfast behind the Ukrainian people.”

Ukraine’s education minister, Andrii Butenko, said he was grateful to the UK government. He said: “This will give Ukrainian children forced to leave their homes by Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine an equal opportunity to choose their native language as a GCSE subject. We will continue working with AQA and the DfE to develop a high-quality and accessible qualification.”

Gould made the announcement on a visit to St Mary’s school in west London, the centre of a network of 13 Ukrainian-language schools in the UK. She was introduced to Vitalii Andronik, 20, who told the Guardian in 2024 how he had been urged to study Russian GCSE as a 15-year-old refugee. Gould told him: “I’m really sorry that you were put in that position.”

Andronik welcomed the new qualification and the apology. He said: “It’s too late to me, but I want future generations of refugees to study Ukrainian. It’s a recognition of the trauma that we went through. It’s brilliant news to hear that in future kids here won’t have to study Russian.”

Sofiia Chonka, 16, who fled to London from Zakarpattia in south-west Ukraine in June 2024 with her family, said: “I was told to study Russia in year 9, I just said ‘no’. I didn’t want anything to do with Russia – they killed my people and injured my family.”

Chonka, who has just started A-levels, said she would take the new exam when it was available. “It’s such a beautiful thing to be speaking Ukrainian when the Russians are trying to mute you.”

She added: “I’m really sad that it has taken so long, but at least they are starting the process, and some of my younger friends will have the opportunity to do it.

“It’s a stereotype that they are similar languages – they are completely different. Because Ukrainian is so beautiful, the Russians don’t like it. They can’t ban it, they can’t ban people.”

Inna Hryhorovych, the head of St Mary’s Trust, who has been calling for the GCSE since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, said: “It’s still hard to comprehend that we don’t need to fight for this any more.” She said her next campaign would be a new A-level in Ukrainian.

Gould said: “We’re just doing GCSEs for now. Let’s see how it goes. But we really want this to be a success.”

The minister said exams board had been nervous about developing a new qualification for a relatively small cohort of students. She said: “Despite the challenges of a smaller qualification, we really wanted to put financial resources to making it possible, and I’m grateful that AQA has come forward.

“I want this to happen as quickly as possible for people, but I’m really glad that it is happening now. Some of the students sitting here today will be able to study this GCSE.”

She encouraged British children to study for the new qualification as an act of solidarity. “I think it would be wonderful if more people were taking up Ukrainian GCSE,” she said, and she joked that Ukrainian children could tutor their friends as a “side hustle”.

When Gould announced the plan to a dozen Ukrainian pupils, they applauded and in unison said “diakuyemo”, or “thank you very much”.