Ukraine: Two in three children out of schools in frontline areas

Toronto, August 27, 2024 – About two-thirds of children in frontline regions of Ukraine cannot attend school in person but rely on remote learning that is plagued by challenges from the ongoing war, according to Save the Children’s latest research [1].

The aid agency’s new report ‘I Want a Peaceful Sky: Education and Children’s Wellbeing in Wartime Ukraine’ reveals the dramatic impact that two years of full-scale war displacing more than 25% of the country’s 38 million population [2] has had on education in Ukraine. The research was based on testimonies from about 1,500 students, caregivers, and teachers.

Of 334 children surveyed in six regions close to the frontline or the Ukraine-Russia border – Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, and Mykolaiv – 221 (64%) reported they can only join classes online, while only 15% attended school in person and 17% used a combination of both [3].

Schools in frontline regions of Ukraine remain closed, due to the danger of air strikes and shelling, while thousands of education institutions across the country cannot reopen due to a lack protective shelters. As a result, almost half of school-aged children in Ukraine – about 1.9 million children – rely on remote education on a full or part-time basis, according to the Ministry of Education.

Some children cited in the report had no choice but to study online using smartphones with broken screens, with many reporting poor internet (79%), lack of electronic devices for learning (42%), and electricity shortages (40%) as significant barriers to their learning.

Anton*, 11, a fifth grader from Mykolaiv, said: “Now learning is online, if I have the internet or electricity turned off, I am not able to come to the lesson. It’s not what it used to be. I dream that the war will end so that we can go to school and learn.”

Maryna*, a principal in Kherson region, said: “There are no schools that operate in-person in our community.  The importance of school education is not just about good marks and learning itself, but in developing communication skills, socialization, capability to get along with peers and with adults.”

At least 3,000 educational institutions have been damaged and more than 300 destroyed during the war, comprising more than 10% of Ukraine’s schools. [5]

More than half of the surveyed families reported that their schools had been damaged, with the figure rising to over 90% in heavily affected regions like Kharkiv and Donetsk.

In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city that faces bombardment almost daily, the local authorities have moved in-person education underground, setting up classrooms in subways.

“Even when there is shelling or air raid alarms, I do not hear them at all. I do not know about it, so at that moment I am not feeling anxious. Here, I communicate with friends, learn new material, so I like it. Personally, it is more difficult for me to study at home because I am often distracted, and here, we are with teachers,” said Maryna*, 17, who attends classes underground for several days a week.

More than half of surveyed families across Ukraine (57%) – or 330 families out of 584 – said their children lacked face-to-face time with teachers.

There’s also a significant shortage of teachers, with more than 43,000 – or about 10% of Ukraine’s total teachers workforce [6] – displaced either internally or abroad. One in four teachers, the vast majority of which are women, are also balancing teaching with humanitarian work, according to a survey cited in the report.

Sonia Khush, Country Director for Save the Children in Ukraine, said:

“Going to school is not just about learning and receiving marks, but about crucial socialization. After more than two years of war, there are thousands of children in Ukraine who have never stepped foot into a classroom.

Save the Children calls for all parties to adhere to their obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law. Civilians and civilian objects, especially those impacting children such as homes, schools, and hospitals, are protected from attack, and all children must be protected from any violations of their rights.

Save the Children has been working in Ukraine since 2014 and has scaled up operations since the war escalated in February 2022. To help children across Ukraine access education, Save the Children and its partners have established around 90 Digital Learning Centers – hubs with all the necessary digital learning tools and devices and facilitators trained to provide learning and wellbeing support.

We have also funded rehabilitation works, including shelter refurbishment, at 70 schools and kindergartens across the country, and supplied laptops and tablets to regions where schools remain closed, so girls and boys without essential devices to continue their learning remotely.

*Names changed to protect identity

NOTES:

[1] LINK TO REPORT

[2] 6.5 million refugees from Ukraine currently displaced across the globe, and 3.5 million more are registered as internally displaced in Ukraine, according to UN data.

[3] Based on SCI’s analysis of survey data collected for the report – LINK TO REPORT: 

[4] According to the State Statistics Service of Ukraine as of September 2023: https://ukrstat.gov.ua/operativ/operativ2023/osv/osv_rik/zso23_ue.xlsx

[5] Estimates vary, see saveschools.in.ua for updated statistics, available at: https://saveschools.in.ua/en/ as well as Ukraine Common Country Analysis 2023, UN Country Team in Ukraine / UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Ukraine (2023) https://reliefweb.int/report/ukraine/ukraine-common-country-analysis-2023?_gl=1*11v68hc*_ga*MTU0Njg3NTU2NS4xNzA1MzE1Mzky*_ga_E60ZNX2F68*MTcwNTMzODUxNS41LjEuMTcwNTMzOTQwOC41MC4wLjA

[6] As of September 2023, there is a total of 390,000 teachers in Ukraine according to The State Statistics Service of Ukraine