Ukrainian Education in Wartime: Challenges and Problems

Abstract

The article surveys the most acute problems and challenges that the Ukrainian educational system has faced since February 24, 2022 as a result of Russian aggression. For a certain time, the education of children and youth generally took a back seat to the basic task of survival. A significant proportion of Ukrainian children, especially displaced persons and refugees, had to miss school in the spring semester. However, despite the ongoing hostilities, educators are heroically continuing their work, even from bomb shelters. The most important problem facing school education is its transition from the domain of the state to the civil or personal sector. A child's education and its quality now primarily depend on the parents, their efforts and conviction in the need for education. The insufficient level of state funding negatively affects the entire education system, leading to a decrease in the number of teachers, lack of new curricula, lack of printed textbooks and educational materials, etc. Educational standards also suffer from the online format, which mostly presupposes self-teaching and requires self-discipline from students. Students lose motivation, and sometimes (especially at the elementary-school level) do not understand and are not able to absorb learning at all. The war is not over yet, and Ukrainian children and young people continue to live in constant psychological tension, with deep psychological trauma and fears caused by the war. A serious challenge for all educators and students is the impossibility of consistently teaching and attending online classes due to planned and emergency power outages that can last for many hours at a time. However, the search for a new format in which the Ukrainian educational system can be rebuilt and restructured is already underway. There is an active discussion of possible solutions to the problems of the Ukrainian educational system both at the international level (see for instance the International Conference on the Restoration of Ukraine, Switzerland – URC 2022) and within the country.