Britain apologizes to refugee children from Ukraine who were forced to learn Russian. The Guardian. School Standards Minister Georgia Gould has apologized to Ukrainian refugee children who were required to learn Russian in English schools, as she announced funding to introduce a new GCSE* exam in Ukrainian. Ukrainian children forced to seek asylum in Britain after the outbreak of war in 2022 said it was "insulting" that their teachers told them to learn Russian because there was no GCSE in Ukrainian. Announcing the new qualification, Georgia Gold said: "So many students have had to learn Russian. I'm really sorry they were put in this position. It is very important that they have access to the GCSE exam in Ukrainian." *GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) is a secondary education certificate that school students receive at the age of 16 after passing exams at the end of the 11th grade.