Ukrainian Education During the War: How the State Is Trying to Preserve the Quality of Knowledge and Return Children to School
Ukrainian education has been operating under the conditions of full-scale war for the fifth year. This is not a temporary disruption that can be survived with a few short-term decisions. It is a long period in which schools, universities, vocational education, teachers, children and parents adapt every day to air raid alerts, destruction, evacuation, online learning, staff shortages and exhaustion. Formally, the educational process has been preserved. But the main question now is not only whether children are studying. The main question is what the quality of this learning is and what will happen to the generation growing up during the war.
Time for Action analyzed that Ukrainian education is now between two major tasks. The first is to provide children with access to learning wherever this is possible at all. The second is to prevent the years of war from turning into a deep gap in knowledge, social development and motivation. Educational losses have already become one of the most serious consequences of the war for the country, although they are not always visible immediately. Lost lessons, constant interruptions, studying from home, technical problems, isolation from classmates and lack of live contact with a teacher gradually affect a child no less than the grades in a school register. The most difficult thing is that educational losses are not limited to the curriculum in mathematics, physics, Ukrainian language or history. Distance learning hits what school gives beyond textbooks discipline, communication, the ability to work in a group, confidence, motivation and a sense of normal life. For younger schoolchildren, this is especially painful because they are only learning how to be students. They need not only to learn letters, numbers or rules, but also to learn how to listen, ask questions, work in class and interact with other children. If the first years of school pass through a screen, these skills are formed with more difficulty.
For teenagers, the problem is different. Some of them can already study more independently, but at this age communication, group work, self-identification and a sense of belonging to an environment are especially important. Long-term isolation, studying from home, the absence of extracurricular life and constant danger create risks not only for knowledge, but also for the psychological state. That is why returning children to in-person learning is not a formal goal, but an attempt to return normal conditions for their development. This explains the state’s focus on shelters and underground schools. An underground school in Ukrainian conditions has become not a symbol of abnormality, but a way to return an ordinary school day to children where an ordinary school can no longer guarantee safety. According to the announced data, more than 100 such institutions have already been built and are operating, and more than 100 more are at various stages of construction. In total, this concerns approximately 220 underground schools that are intended to create a safe environment for children, primarily in frontline regions. These are very expensive projects. A school for 500-1000 children may cost from 80 to 120 million hryvnias. But the cost here should be assessed not only as the construction of a building. It is about the opportunity for children to see teachers, work with equipment, eat hot meals, meet peers, have a day that resembles a school day, and not only a set of online lessons. For frontline communities, this is also a factor in keeping people. If a community has a safe school, families have more reasons to stay or return.
At the same time, online learning will not disappear. More than 200,000 students continue to study remotely for various reasons. Some live in regions where offline learning is impossible because of security. Some are children from internally displaced families who want to remain in their schools. About 60,000 more children are abroad, but remain in the Ukrainian education system. For them, distance learning is often the only way not to lose connection with Ukraine. This connection has strategic significance. A child who completely falls out of Ukrainian education finds it increasingly difficult over time to return to the Ukrainian educational space. That is why the state supports the Ukrainian studies component, Saturday and Sunday schools, cultural centers, remote formats and different ways of recognizing learning results from abroad. This does not solve all problems, but it allows a bridge to be preserved between children abroad and Ukraine.
A separate part of this discussion is admission and the NMT. Under wartime conditions, the national multi-subject test remains in its current format because it better corresponds to security, logistics, energy and access restrictions for children from temporarily occupied territories and from abroad. At the same time, discussions about the difficulty of the NMT do not remove the main point the test has become a tool that allows the admission campaign to be held even in wartime. This year, more than 350,000 participants have registered, and this shows sustained interest in Ukrainian education.
For universities, the challenge is different. Ukraine is entering a period when there will be fewer students because of demographics. This means that competition between higher education institutions will grow, and weaker universities will not be able to survive only because of habit or local status. The quality of education, modern infrastructure, strong lecturers and proper management are becoming conditions for a university’s survival. That is why the state is moving toward enlarging the network, merging some institutions, modernizing campuses and attracting funds for equipment. The problem is that the university network is too inflated. Many state universities have a small number of students, and this complicates quality education, scientific work and investment in development. A good university needs a larger environment, strong departments, laboratories, a student community and a management culture. If an institution cannot provide this, it loses competition not only to Ukrainian, but also to European universities.
School education has an equally complex staffing problem. The formal number of vacancies may not be catastrophic, but there is a hidden shortage that is visible in small schools and in subjects where specialists are lacking. The greatest need is for teachers of English, natural sciences, computer science, mathematics, Ukrainian language and literature. If a computer science teacher teaches physics, and one teacher takes on several incompatible subjects, the school may formally operate, but the quality of knowledge declines. That is why the issue of small schools cannot be reduced only to savings. A small school with few children, a shortage of teachers and a weak material base often cannot provide the same quality of education as a larger and better staffed institution. The state is pushing communities toward optimizing the network, creating hub schools and branches. But this process must be careful. A child in a village or small town must not lose access to education. The task is different – to make sure that access is not only formal, but high-quality.
Raising teachers’ salaries is another element of this policy. The education budget has grown, and a significant part of additional funds is directed specifically to wages. From September, salaries are expected to increase further, and special attention is being paid to young teachers. This is critical because the share of teachers under 30 remains low. If young people do not see a professional future in school, the staffing problem will only deepen. Without young specialists, school will not be able to renew itself, even if it receives new laboratories, buses or shelters. The war has also changed the very logic of educational investment. The state is forced to invest not only in textbooks, laboratories or the reform of the New Ukrainian School, but also in what was not previously a basic educational need shelters, underground schools, energy independence, restoration of damaged buildings, buses for safe transportation. More than 400 educational institutions have been destroyed, and more than 4,000 have been damaged. University buildings have also been damaged. This means that part of the resources goes not into development, but into keeping the system from collapsing.
Despite this, education cannot live only by the logic of survival. Ukraine needs a school that after the war will give the country engineers, doctors, teachers, technologists, managers and specialists capable of building a strong economy. The issue of natural sciences, mathematics and engineering fields is especially acute. If children lose interest in these subjects at school, universities then do not receive enough motivated applicants, and the country does not receive specialists for defense, industry, technology and reconstruction. The main challenge for Ukrainian education today is not simply to complete the school year. It is to avoid lowering the bar where the war forces it to be lowered every day. Safety is certainly the first condition. But quality must follow it a strong teacher, a normal environment, modern equipment, live communication and a clear path for the student. Ukrainian education has withstood a blow that would have been destructive for many systems. But the next stage is more difficult. Now it is necessary not only to preserve learning, but to restore its fullness. Because education during the war is not a secondary sphere. It is a question of what Ukraine will be like after the war and whether it will have the people capable of rebuilding, defending and developing it.
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