Poland will recognize Belarusian certificates at the same level as Polish ones
March 03, 2025
Original Article: https://news.zerkalo.io/europe/88050.html
The original article requires translation.
Belarusian secondary education certificates will be recognized in Poland at the level of "matura" - the Polish school leaving certificate. Other requirements for applicants' documents, which currently vary depending on the university and region, will be unified. This was discussed at a meeting between Svetlana Tikhanovskaya and Polish Education Minister Barbara Nowacka, the United Transitional Cabinet reported, MOST writes.
The Polish Ministry of Education noted that they had “prepared regulations that will improve the process of recognizing documents of Belarusians entering Polish educational institutions.” They did not provide any details.
In addition, at a meeting with Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, Tikhanovskaya called for simplifying the conditions for issuing student visas to Belarusians. She drew attention to the fact that young people are now often denied student visas.
Let us recall that applicants and students faced bureaucratic problems. In November 2023, the agreement between Belarus and Poland on cooperation in the field of education expired, but even before that, Belarus suspended this document. The agreement provided for the mutual recognition of certificates and diplomas. When it ceased to be valid, Belarusian applicants in Poland began to be required to provide a certificate confirming the legality of their certificates. But there were problems with obtaining it in Belarus.
Then Poland made changes, canceling the requirement to provide this certificate. Now, recognition of educational documents is carried out on the basis of an administrative decision. However, education councils - curatoriums - have the right to establish their own criteria for recognizing certificates and diplomas.
In practice, this means that many curatoriums require Belarusian applicants to provide centralized testing certificates. And they are valid for only two years. It turns out that some applicants need to return to Belarus to take the CT. But this is not safe for everyone.