Amid war, Ukraine’s schools continue to lead way for children
Shelter kits are helping schools in Odesa to ensure uninterrupted access to education and a safe learning environment for children.
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“There is a psychological strain,” says Nataliia, the headteacher of a lyceum in the southern city of Odesa. “Children often miss classes after a night of air raids – they simply aren’t able to attend.”
Amid the war in Ukraine, many schools have had to focus, not only on providing formal education, but on protecting children’s lives and well-being. At one lyceum in Odesa, home to more than 1,000 pupils, every day begins with a safety check.
The school has already been damaged twice during attacks, once in February 2022 and again in 2025. The attack impacted the school at night when it was empty.
Following recent strikes, UNICEF and the Association of Innovative and Digital Education began replacing damaged windows in schools in Odesa, Izmail and Voznesensk. Specialists apply a special shatter-resistant film to the glass to increase safety. During the most recent incident, it was this film that held the fragments in place and prevented them from shattering and flying across the classroom.
“We all live in this neighbourhood, so we found out immediately that the school had been damaged. As the headteacher – who remained at school even during remote learning – it was deeply painful for me. This place is my whole life. I studied here myself and graduated from this very school.”
Due to the war, the school only re-opened for in-person learning in l the summer of 2023 after a shelter was built. Now, students attend lessons in person four days a week, with only one day of remote learning.
“This place is my whole life”
Nataliia’s lyceum has a clear protocol in place for air raid alerts. It takes just four minutes to evacuate all pupils and staff to the shelter.
For safety reasons, no classes are held on the fourth floor, which is closest to the roof. Pupils do not move between classrooms but remain in a single designated room, with each class having an assigned evacuation route and a designated place in the shelter.
“The children know all the evacuation routes, and they practise them regularly,” says Nataliia. “Since they study in a single classroom, they’ve already memorised their route.”
The school’s shelter, designed to accommodate 590 people, has made it possible for the lyceum to implement a blended learning model. UNICEF-provided ‘shelter kits’ mean the school is now fully equipped with essentials such as chairs, extension cords, fire extinguishers and a first-aid kit, as well as a generator and power banks to provide electricity to the shelter during blackouts. Across the Odesa region, 86 schools have received ‘shelter kits’ through this initiative, aimed at ensuring uninterrupted access to education and a safer learning environment for children.
“They’ve become more anxious”
Iryna, a Ukrainian and world literature teacher and form tutor, has become a vital source of emotional support for her students.
“They’ve become more anxious, unable to concentrate. Sometimes they come to class and nearly fall asleep. And I understand – when they haven’t slept all night, spent it in a shelter and still have to come to school in the morning… They can’t absorb the material. They’re just trying to hold themselves together.”
Despite her own grief following the death of her parents and the tragic loss of some students, Iryna finds the strength to remain a pillar of support for her pupils.
“I always greet them with ‘my sunshine, good morning, no rush’. If there’s an alert, we wait for the all-clear and then make our way to school. I wait for everyone, so I can give them a hug.”
Taisiia, a student in year nine, is grateful for the support she receives from Iryna, who helps her and other students cope with the effects of stress and continue their studies.
“Constant stress interferes not only with learning but with life itself. But we’ll all get through it. I believe we will all be strong. Each class has its own place in the shelter, so we go down quickly and sit without panic.”
“That first year was tough”
Despite all the challenges, learning at the Odesa lyceum continues. Soon, the school will begin preparations for the new academic year.
“The first-year children returned to in-person learning was extremely difficult,” recounts Nataliia. “They had forgotten how to communicate with each other and had lost basic social skills. We had only been back to in-person classes for half a year after COVID – then the war began. That first year was tough for both teachers and pupils. Now, we’re in our second year of blended learning, and everything is finally starting to fall into place.”
UNICEF continues to support schools across Ukraine by providing essential equipment – including for shelters – and helping to create a safe learning environment for children.
The assistance in the Odesa region is made possible thanks to the partnership with the Government of Spain.
