Air raid alerts disrupted the first day of school in Kyiv on Tuesday, just hours after Russian ballistic missiles struck the Ukrainian capital overnight. Parents and children gathered for the traditional start of the academic year, but the sound of sirens quickly sent them to safety.
This marks the fifth school year for Ukrainian students since Russia's invasion, with no end to the war in sight. Thousands of schools across the country have adapted by shifting to remote or hybrid learning, holding classes in bomb shelters, or closing entirely in destroyed or Russian-occupied towns. Russian attacks have also led to the destruction of an estimated 1 million textbooks, and officials are preparing for potential winter blackouts.
At Lyceum Obolon in Kyiv, school principal Yevhen Poliakov decided to proceed with the opening ceremony, utilizing the school's shelter. "We’ll teach them here, and it’s better for a child to be under our supervision than alone on the ninth floor while mom and dad are at work," Poliakov stated, highlighting the challenges of remote learning for working parents.
Kyiv schools are planning to begin the academic year with a mix of in-person and remote classes, with the flexibility to switch formats based on the security situation, according to the city administration. Ukraine's education minister, Andrii Butenko, reported in August that out of the country's general secondary schools, 8,424 will operate in person, 1,306 remotely, and 2,211 in a blended format. This means nearly a third of schools cannot fully open in person.
Some schools have been directly impacted by attacks. At one school in Kyiv damaged days earlier by a Russian attack, only a handful of children attended an informal ceremony. Windows, facades, and equipment across three buildings were damaged, forcing most students to begin the school year online. Oksana Herasymchuk, whose daughter started middle school, attended the ceremony despite the damage. "Our children’s age group has faced a lot of trials," she said.
Since the full-scale war began, 318 educational facilities in Kyiv, including 156 schools, have been damaged, with some schools sustaining multiple hits. The number of first-graders in Kyiv schools has dropped by approximately 40% since September 1, 2022, from 28,500 to 16,600 this year.
Anna Putsova, co-founder of the savED charitable foundation, described the situation as a"constant obstacle course" for Ukrainian education. She noted the serious toll of the war, including accumulated learning loss, a shrinking student population, and a heavy burden on schools and teachers. The overall number of schoolchildren in Ukraine has fallen by 17.5%, or more than 755,000, since the 2021-22 school year.
Putsova emphasized the broader implications, stating, "The knowledge level of today’s children will determine the quality of future specialists, the productivity of the economy, the country’s ability to create complex products and technologies." The impact of the war on education varies significantly by region, affecting everything from the availability of safe in-person classes to school capacity due to displacement and student population decline.