"You're Not Learning Polish By Any Chance?"

• 17.10.2025, 11:49

Hrodna schools calculate those who plan to study abroad.

Belarusian schoolchildren, who are going to enter Polish universities, try not to tell their schools about it. Parents confess: it is calmer this way - fewer unnecessary questions. But teachers are increasingly interested in the plans of graduates. And they try to persuade them to choose Belarusian universities.

Hrodna.life talked to two families: one is preparing to enroll, the other has already sent a child to study in Poland. The journalists found out why parents prefer not to talk about their plans in schools and where in Hrodna it is possible to prepare for the B1 level Polish language exam.

"We say that we are going to BSUIR - to get behind"

Natalia (name changed) is the mother of an eleventh-grader from Hrodna gymnasium. The family has been planning to move to Poland for a long time, but wants to do it quietly: to draw up documents, learn the language and find a place to live. Natalya's son is going to enter a Polish university. But no one at school knows about it.

- The class teacher asks the children where they are going to go. My son studies in the physics and math class, and most of the kids answer: "To BSUIR, electronics." Just to get out of the way - no one dares to talk about going abroad, - says Natalia.

They are looking for those who learn Polish

The school used to conduct such surveys within the framework of career guidance - to understand where the child will continue studying after the ninth grade. But now the school tries to find out other things: who is going to study in Poland.

- They may ask in passing: "Are you, by any chance, learning Polish?"

And along with such interviews in schools, ideological work has also intensified.

- Recently, representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs came to the 10-11th grades. They held an information lesson about 2020 and "enemy states".

The woman is sure that such lessons are held on purpose so that high school students would not want to go abroad.

"They told about the admission only at the train station"

Vera (name changed) is the mother of a graduate who entered a Polish university this year. All year her daughter has been practicing Polish with a tutor. The school didn't know about it.

- They started asking us at the first parents' meeting in September, where the children would go. We didn't tell anyone and tried to avoid these conversations. But the head teacher was very persistent - he wanted to know everything about the plans. He even said that, if necessary, we could get a target somewhere or write a characteristic from the school. It was important for him that as many children as possible entered Belarusian universities.

When the admission campaign started in Belarus, the class teacher asked again where Vera's daughter would go.

- We answered that we were still thinking. When the campaign ended, including for extra-budgetary places, we said that we didn't get in and would try next year.

Vera said that until the last moment they didn't talk about enrollment in Poland - they were afraid that their daughter might have problems at the border or with the class teacher at school.

- We were afraid of condemnation and accusations. My daughter told her classmates only when she was already at the train station. Then she wrote to her class teacher. She was happy for her, by the way.