Ukraine

Summary of needs

The war in Ukraine continues to threaten the right to education for an estimated 1.6 million children,¹ including children with disabilities. In 2024, intensified missile attacks disrupted learning for one-third of boys and girls nationwide, while displacement impeded the education of 14 per cent of children.² Access to in-person education remains particularly challenging in the areas close to the front line and along the border with the Russian Federation. About 70 per cent of children in the east and 30 per cent in the south continue to rely on remote learning, with displaced children three times more likely to attend school online than non-displaced children.³ Based on the Education Cluster’s data, 80 per cent of internally displaced children in the west also continue learning online, with nearly all children in collective sites learning entirely online.

The impact of the war on children’s emotional and psychological well-being and their motivation to learn has contributed to a decline in learning,⁴ while psychological distress and digital fatigue have contributed to non-attendance.⁵ The war has also affected educators, with 80 per cent of teachers reporting feeling stressed or anxious about work and unsafe at or while travelling to work. Eighty-two per cent of the teaching force in Ukraine are women, which adds to their cross-sectoral vulnerabilities.

Since the escalation of the war in February 2022, nearly 3,600 educational institutions, including 2,000 schools, have been damaged, with 371 facilities totally destroyed, according to the Government of Ukraine.⁶ Damage to educational infrastructure continues to occur, outpacing the level of repairs due to ongoing attacks. Poorly equipped and congested shelters in schools and pre-schools across the country are major barriers to return to in-person learning, especially in front-line and border oblasts.

There have been declines in educational outcomes, with children across eastern and northern regions, as well as pupils in rural areas, lagging behind their peers.⁷ Furthermore, time spent on learning is affected by an increase in care work for girls, and engagement in small repairs, home maintenance and farming activities for boys in rural areas.

Response strategy

In 2025, Education Cluster partners will provide access to quality education in safe, inclusive environments through offline (in-person), online and blended learning modalities for war-affected children and teachers by adapting learning and teaching modalities in the prioritized oblasts, based on the prevailing security and safety conditions.

MHPSS and GBV risk mitigation will be integrated into the response in coordination with the MHPSS Technical Working Group, the Child Protection and GBV AoRs, and the Health Cluster. Emergency repair and rehabilitation activities will be coordinated with Shelter/NFI and WASH clusters.

Response modalities include in-kind, service delivery and cash assistance. In-kind activities include the provision of essential learning materials and individual learning kits, while cash and in-kind mechanisms will provide institutional kits (including shelter kits, ECCD kits, recreational kits) to schools and kindergartens.

Targeting and prioritization

In 2025, the Education Cluster aims to assist 830,000 children and teachers (771,700 children and 58,300 teachers), representing 51 per cent of the 1.6 million people in need. The Cluster adopts a needs-based prioritization based on severity of needs, resources, capacity of partners, achievements in 2024 and access. The response will complement the Ministry of Education and Science’s (MoES) School Offline Policy and the ongoing efforts of programmes such as Education Cannot Wait and Global Partnership for Education. Seventy-four per cent of the children and teachers to be assisted are in raions with the highest intersectoral severity of needs (phases 4 and 5). In raions with level 3 intersectoral needs, only those with high concentrations of vulnerable internally displaced people are prioritized for MHPSS as a life-saving activity. Additionally, a small number of children will be supported with online MHPSS and catch-up services in the areas occupied by the Russian Federation, where there are no other means of engagement.

In 2025, the Cluster will focus on life-saving Education in Emergency activities while enabling complementary access to education services in alignment with efforts by the MoES, to avoid duplication and enhance access to education. The Cluster has adjusted its activities as the MoES is now working to prioritize offline learning while supporting light repairs for bomb shelters and providing devices for online learning. As a result, the Cluster significantly reduced activities related to bomb shelter repairs (from 830,000 planned reach in 2024 to 40,000 in 2025) and the provision of equipment and kits (from 830,000 planned reach in 2024 to 118,000 in 2025). However, the Cluster will continue to support light repairs of bomb shelters and the provision of equipment for rural schools and kindergartens in raions classified as severity levels 4 and 5, which are excluded from government programmes. Additionally, the Cluster will prioritize MHPSS and access to education where Government support is limited.

Cost of response

In 2025, the Education Cluster will require an estimated $84 million to implement its response plan. Costs-per-child-per-activity were derived from the costing exercise conducted by the Education Cluster in September 2024. Estimated costs for each activity considered response modalities (online, offline, mobile brigades), humanitarian access and other factors (e.g. additional costs for targeting children with disabilities).

The average cost-per-person is projected to be $101.97 per child. The three main drivers of the cost, accounting for a significant portion of the budget, are:

1. Provision of MHPSS, Social Emotional Learning and Psychological First Aid, representing 36 per cent of the total budget. These activities are crucial in supporting the mental health and emotional well-being of children in war-affected education spaces.
2. Establishing Digital Learning Centres and Temporary Learning Spaces, constituting 17 per cent of the budget. These facilities provide safe spaces for continued learning in war-affected areas.
3. Repairing protective emergency shelters and war-affected education facilities, making up 16 per cent of the budget. These repairs are essential to ensure that education can take place in secure environments.