Maltese bureaucracy putting Ukrainian children’s education in limbo

Ukranian mothers who desperately fled the war in their homeland, are facing a bureaucratic nightmare when attempting to register their children to Maltese schools.

Despite not being the closest shore to their home country, hundreds of Ukrainians have sought temporary protection in Malta and are attempting to rebuild their lives in our country.

Many Ukrainians fled their country with very limited resources and can’t afford to rent or buy their own place. They are therefore mostly being hosted by relatives, friends and people of good will, until they are in a position to get their own place.

As a result, many Ukrainians have been unable to obtain a residence card through Identity Malta, since they are being asked by authorities to provide rental agreement contracts. They are therefore running into a stonewall, since without the card they are unable to register for most essential services and benefits.

Many of the Ukrainians that came to Malta are mothers with children, whose partners had no option but to remain and join the military, as the war intensified.

Confusion and frustration

A group of Ukranian mothers reached out to MaltaToday and explained the struggles they are facing in Malta due to the fact that the authorities are making it very difficult for them to register their children for school. They explained that since their young children are not at school, they are unable to get a job or attend English lessons. They said that this situation is causing them even more stress and is making it more difficult for them to rebuild their lives.

A young mother, Anna* explained how she came to Malta in mid-March and that she has been trying to get her six-year-old son registered for public primary school for a month and a half.

She recounted how she was asked by the Ministry of Education to submit a number of documents but although she complied, she never heard back from the Ministry or the school, and she is still in limbo.

“My main worry is that my child is not getting an education and is spending his days at home. He needs to socialise and he needs to mix up with other children,” Anna said.

Anna said that she is now trying to register her son for summer school as well, before attempting to register him for the next scholastic year in October.

“Things are however very confusing. We need clear directions from the government,” Anna said.

Nina* is a mother of a 13-year-old daughter who has been in Malta since mid-March. After two months of calls, meetings and documents, her daughter finally attended her first lessons at her new school.

“If I could sum up the whole process in one word, it would be ‘a waiting game’. It’s such a relief that my daughter can now go to school, but the whole process was so slow and tiring,” Nina said.

She said that upon receiving the temporary protection status, she contacted the Ministry of Education in order to query on the school registration process for her daughter. Nina was asked to provide a list of documents online, which she did immediately.

After two weeks, she received an SMS confirming that the registration was successful, however she was not informed of the name of the school nor of the starting date. Despite the SMS confirmation, Nina received an email requesting her to provide additional documents.

She complied and provided all the documents requested, after which the Ministry scheduled her an appointment with the school principal. After the meeting, the school kept asking for an average of a new document a week.

One of the documents she was asked to provide, was the permission from the other parent, for the child to attend school. This was not possible to acquire, since her husband is in Ukraine. After consulting with the Ukrainian Consulate, she managed to get the document waivered.

“I was also asked to provide a transcript of my daughter’s grades from her Ukrainian school. That was the last thing I thought of taking with me before I left Ukraine,” Nina said.

After this whole process, her daughter had to sit for an English test. Finally, four weeks after the meeting, her daughter was given to go ahead to start school.

“Thankfully my daughter really likes the school and is enjoying her time there. I am finally relieved that things are settling down,” Nina said.

We also spoke to Olga*, a mother of three who has also been residing in Malta since March. She said that the International Protection Agency documents were sorted in April and that she immediately went to the Education ministry to register her children to school.

The application for her 15-year-old son was rejected and she was told to register again in September. Her other two children, aged seven and 13 were immediately accepted, however Olga was told to wait until the process was finalised.

“There was no follow-up since then and I was told that my children would only be able to start school next October. It seems like if you follow the right procedures, you get left behind,” Olga said.

For the time being, her three children are following online lessons, offered by their Ukrainian schools.

“I am really worried as I’m not sure whether they would be able to attend online lessons in Ukraine in the next scholastic year. I don’t really understand why we have to wait until next October for them to start school and why the process is so bureaucratic,” Olga said.

“My kids need to socialise, integrate and mix up with others. They also need to improve their command of English and being in school would really help them.”

She mentioned how the children of others Ukrainians, who are now living in Poland and in Germany, have all started school with much less difficulties.

“I cannot understand this process, why it is taking so long and why different entities keep asking for different documents. I however am extremely grateful for all the hospitality and all the help the Maltese have given us. They have been so kind to us, guiding us and providing us with food and clothes,” Olga said.

She said that the fact that most Ukrainians had not managed to enrol their children to school, was holding them back from finding a job and attend English classes. Olga explained that most of the Ukrainians who found shelter in Malta, were mothers with children and this meant that they had to fend for themselves financially.

“We arrived in Malta with very limited resources and due to the fact that this whole process is taking so long, we are exhausting all the resources that we have. We have to rely on food and clothes provided by others,” Olga said.

*Names have been changed to protect the identity of the individuals

Social security benefits

The mothers also touched upon the social security benefits that the Maltese state has offered them. They recounted how the majority of them are getting cheques mailed to them, however since none of them have managed to open a local bank account, they have to cash them at the central bank against a charge.

“We have to go to the Central Bank in Valletta each time to cash our cheques. We get charged between five and seven euro each time and not all of us have the time on our hands to do so,” they said.

“We are not here on holiday and we are dealing with severe psychological trauma. It just happened that we were forced out of our homes and we are therefore in need of support. We feel that the Maltese government is creating additional roadblocks on purpose.”

Language barrier

Many of the Ukrainians in Malta are not English speaking due to the excessive levels of bureaucracy they are facing, things are even more frustrating and confusing for them.

The International Protection Agency hired an interpreter and those that spoke to us said this made life easier for them. When it came to the Education ministry however, no interpreter was engaged and the language barrier made the whole process even more stressful.

Those that spoke to this newsroom revealed how only private institutions were offering free English lessons to the Ukranian community. They explained that Malta's Federation of English Language Teaching Organisations (FELTOM) made contact with the NGOs helping them, and offered them free English lessons.

Questions to the Education Ministry remain unanswered

MaltaToday sent a number of questions to the Ministry of Education in order to seek clarity on the matter but they have so far remained unanswered.