Preparation of Ukrainian Education for the New Academic Year in War

Schools are being prepared for September 1 all over the country, where the security situation allows.  After all, as of August 21, 2022, 1094 children in Ukraine suffered as a result of full-scale armed aggression by the russian federation. 373 children were killed and 721 were injured. Therefore, offline education will only be possible in safer regions where there are no military actions.

Due to the bombing and shelling by the Russian occupiers, 2,328 educational institutions were damaged, 289 are completely destroyed and 1,300 are under occupation.

However, more than 300,000 children who plan to go to school in Ukraine are enrolled in the first grade. The largest number of applications was received in Lviv, Dnipropetrovsk, Odessa, Kyiv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Rivne regions, as well as about 24,000 applications in Kyiv (according to the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine).

 Schools across Ukraine will be able to independently determine the duration and structure of the school yea. This was a statement of Minister of Education and Science Sergii Shkarlett during a conference call about the readiness of educational institutions for the new school year. 

According to him, the length of the school week (five or six days), school days, classes and recreation will be determined by the pedagogical council of each educational institution. But the priority for the ministry is the safety of children and educators!  

Thus, today there are four models of learning in institutions of general secondary education.

For the students (those who live in safe regions and their place of residence has not changed, and those who are internally displaced) the following forms of education are offered: full-time, distance, family (home) form of education, mixed form of education, externship.

 Students who are abroad are offered full-time, distance, family (home) form of education and externship.

For students who stay in the temporarily occupied territories or in the military actions zones, only the distance form of education and family (home) form of Education are offered.

Regarding the readiness of schools to start education process, the Ministry of Internal Affairs reports that about 40% of Ukrainian schools are provided with shelters. The worst shelters are provided at schools in Mykolaiv region. Only 16% of schools are equipped with protective structures at this region.

The best situation is in the Lviv region, where 83% of schools are ready to start offline education. And special commissions of the State Emergency Situations Ministry have already examined the buildings of 1205 universities, schools and kindergartens in Zakarpattia region, the last 48 are next in line. Currently, if all requirements are met, commissioners recommend that 517 schools be opened, 41 percent of the total. In Kiev, 740 out of 1,063 schools were recommended for opening, which is 68%.

The Trade Union of Education and Science of Ukraine helps teachers to prepare for the start of the new school year.  Therefore, together with the ministry of education, various documents on the organization of work in schools and kindergartens are being prepared. As for the occupied territories and territories near the combat zone, special explanations are being prepared regarding the educational process, salaries, and precautions regarding cooperation with the occupiers.

International Department