Ukrainian children living in the UK have claimed they are being “forced” to take Russian GCSE to boost their schools’ grades.

The Telegraph has spoken to several Ukrainian refugees who allege they were pressured into taking the subject despite feeling deeply uncomfortable speaking the language following the Russian invasion.

Bridget Phillipson, the Education Secretary, has now written to exam boards asking them to consider introducing a GCSE in Ukrainian.

Ms Phillipson is also expected to meet her Ukrainian counterpart this week to discuss deepening educational links between London and Kyiv.

Top private schools are among those understood to be pushing Ukrainian children to sit a GCSE in Russian, alongside several high-performing academies.

The Telegraph has chosen not to name the schools after the children asked to remain anonymous, with each school likely only to accept a handful of Ukrainian refugees.

The Government described the allegations as “shocking” and said it was encouraging exam boards to introduce a Ukrainian GCSE to help refugees “celebrate their heritage and their native language”.

‘It feels like a betrayal of Ukraine’

Liuba, an 18-year-old from the west of Ukraine, said she was pressured by a UK academy into sitting Russian GCSE even though she did not speak the language.

“I only had science, maths, [English] language and literature – I needed at least one more to get into college. I got told to do Russian, even though I was thinking of doing German, but I wasn’t allowed,” she told The Telegraph.

“It was psychologically hard for me because I don’t use Russian in my day-to-day life and I’d never done it before the war… There was one point in one of my teaching sessions where the woman was like ‘oh well, if we’re learning Russian then you might as well just start speaking Russian, because an exam has a speaking part as well’.

“I kept on trying to say something in Russian, and I kept crying because it was such an emotional thing for me to do – it was psychologically hard to find it inside of myself and to actually start speaking that language.”

Liuba said she felt “guilty” about learning Russian during the invasion and chose not to disclose the matter to her friends back in Ukraine.

“I felt like I betrayed Ukraine by taking this GCSE because I had to speak the language of Russia, of a country that is killing our people, and I found it very hard,” she said.

‘I felt furious as my friends were dying’

Liza, a 17-year-old from Kharkiv who arrived in the UK with her mother in 2022, said also she was “forced to take Russian” for her formal exams last year.

“In Year 11, my school said I needed to do one language except English, and they suggested to me Russian or Ukrainian [GCSE], but then found out there wasn’t a Ukrainian one,” she said.

“So I was forced to take Russian because I didn’t have another choice, I didn’t know another language… I felt furious about the fact that I needed to take Russian GCSE [while] my friends, my relatives [were] dying in the city I was living in.”

‘Cruel and dreadful’

Vitalik, an 18-year-old from Ukraine, said: “When I arrived in the UK, I wasn’t familiar with the GCSE system, so I was a bit confused when I was asked to choose additional subjects.

“I was asked if I knew the Russian language. I said that I could hold a small conversation but have no understanding of the grammar or writing. Despite this, I was suggested to take Russian GCSE as an additional subject, as it could be beneficial to my grades and future education. I refused.

“Suggesting Ukrainians do Russian GCSE is cruel and dreadful. How can I do Russian GCSE when my people are being tortured and bombarded by Russians? It’s ridiculous to me.”

Around 35,000 Ukrainian children are thought to have fled to the UK since the Russian invasion in February 2022, with official figures showing more than 20,000 were offered places at English schools in 2022/23.

Although many Ukrainians do speak Russian given their linguistic similarities, some have made a concerted effort to abandon the language in favour of Ukrainian to show solidarity with Kyiv during the war.

Russian GCSE entries rise

There is currently no Ukrainian among the formal exams on offer in Britain, but entries for Russian GCSE have been steadily increasing over the past few years.

A Telegraph analysis shows overall entries for the subject have jumped 47 per cent since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – with 3,484 pupils taking the subject in the UK last year, up from 2,376 in 2022 and 3,255 in 2023.

The rise may be partially explained by increased interest in Russia as its role on the world stage has received heightened attention, or by families fleeing Moscow for Britain.

However, some think schools are pushing Ukrainian children to take the subject as an easy way of bolstering their grades.

The Ukrainian children The Telegraph spoke to received top marks in Russian GCSE, although some said they were made to study the language in their own time and with little teaching support.

Inna Hryhorovych, the head teacher of St Mary’s Ukrainian School, which provides support for around 2,500 displaced Ukrainian children across the UK, said many were “being encouraged – or in some cases, pressured – to take Russian GCSEs”.