Disrupted schooling in Ukraine has led to ‘emotional instability in children’
By Kielce Gussie
For five consecutive years, children in Ukraine have not had any form of “normal” schooling. From COVID-19 to the ongoing war in the country, the Ukrainian Ministry of Education and Science reported that some 4.6 million children in Ukraine face barriers to education, and 2 million of them have seen their school close down.
In an interview with Vatican News’ Marie Duhamel, Laura Frigenti, the Director-General of the Global Partnership for Education—the largest global fund dedicated to education—spoke about the effects of the war in Ukraine on children's education.
More than physical consequences
Frigenti highlighted there are two main consequences of the war on the educational system. The first is “that half of the infrastructure was destroyed, and so the children had to stop going to school and start remote education,” she explained.
The children’s rights NGO Plan International reported that about 30% of Ukraine’s educational buildings have been damaged and over 365 schools completely destroyed since 2022. Despite moving online, constant, quality education remains difficult for children to receive, as power outages and limited internet access create barriers.
This physical consequence of the war on education has also led to “an emotional instability in many children, which prevents them from fully achieving the objectives that they could achieve under normal circumstances,” as Frigenti described.
She pointed out that the children, as a result, need psycho-emotional support “to make sure that they can compensate for the crisis that they are experiencing in their life.” Thus, whenever possible, Frigenti said they try to bring children together physically to help them learn about each other and improve their social skills. However, this is not always possible due to the bombings.
Education on pause
A survey of 1,000 fifteen- to twenty-four-year-olds conducted by Plan International in February 2025 showed that one in five have missed between one and two years of education as a result of the war.
More data showed a startling consequence: some children in the 5th or 6th grades cannot read following the shift to studying online and they struggle to learn without the physical help of teachers. For students living in rural areas and villages, another study reported that, on average, children are four to five years behind their peers.
Ukraine’s future
In light of the situation, the Ukrainian government created a development strategy for the educational sector focused on reconstruction and the future of the country. Frigenti explained the government is looking to have the country “fully integrated in Europe on a trajectory of growth.”
To do this, she argued their focus is on developing human capital and fostering “the right skills for them to be able to perform the role that they see them being able to play in Europe.”
Frigenti described it as difficult to have enough resources to support this project for education, especially in light of working towards reconstruction in the country. So, she expressed that the work the government is doing to “involve the private sector and bring all sorts of players around the table” is commendable.
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