Zaluzhny reported Britain's historic decision regarding Ukrainian children

Great Britain is preparing to introduce a GCSE exam in Ukrainian. This decision will allow Ukrainian children who moved to the country due to the war to officially confirm their knowledge of the native language and obtain a British educational qualification. This was reported by Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, as reported by Hlavkom.

According to him, teaching under the new program is planned to begin in September 2028 in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The first exams will take place in 2029. They will be open not only to children from Ukrainian families but to all willing students.

Zaluzhnyi called the decision historic, because Ukrainian will for the first time have a separate place in the British school qualifications system. For Ukrainian children, this will mean the opportunity to maintain a connection with their native language and culture without leaving the educational system of the country where they study.

“For thousands of children who war forced to leave Ukraine, this is an opportunity to study abroad and at the same time preserve their identity,” the ambassador emphasized.

The importance of this step is also due to the fact that previously, due to the lack of a separate Ukrainian language exam, some Ukrainian schoolchildren in British educational institutions were offered to take GCSE in Russian. As The Guardian reports, the Ukrainian side raised this issue with the British government, and community representatives have been advocating for the introduction of the corresponding qualification for years.

GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) is a British qualification for secondary education that students usually obtain at the age 15–16 after taking exams in various subjects. The new Ukrainian language program will test listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills, and will also take into account the cultural and historical context of the language.

The qualification will be developed by the British examination board AQA with the support of the UK Department for Education. The British government has allocated 340 million pounds for this project.

Zaluzhnyi noted that the decision was the result of years of work by the Ukrainian community in Great Britain and Ukrainian diplomats. He separately highlighted the contribution of Inna Grigorovych, director of the Ukrainian School of the Immaculate Conception.

The ambassador also linked the innovation to the development of Ukrainian-British partnership and the Century Partnership Agreement between the two states. According to him, Ukrainian children should maintain ties to their homeland regardless of where they live.

Earlier, the UK government apologized to Ukrainian refugee children who were offered or recommended studying Russian instead of Ukrainian in local schools. Introducing Ukrainian GCSE is meant to correct this situation and grant the native language a proper place in the British education system.