16 April 2025

Renovations open classroom doors and get Ukraine’s children back into school safely

Six months ago, the war in Ukraine forced Nataliia and her eight children to move from their home in the Sumy region. Although the fighting was often just kilometres away, for 50-year-old Nataliia, the final straw came when a strike landed metres from their front door. Settling in the Kharkiv region, her children ...
23 January 2025

Catch-up classes help conquer barriers to education in Ukraine

Eight-year-old Liana loves school. However, until recently, she only saw her classmates on a computer screen, due to the ongoing war in Ukraine. Back in 2022, amid the shelling, her family had sought refuge in Czechia. However, while they felt safer, online classes proved challenging. So, after a year, the family ...
05 December 2024

Education for some 485,000 children to be better protected over the winter months

KYIV, 04 December 2024, – The latest release of school grants will help enhance winter operations for an additional 100 schools, taking the total number supported by UNICEF jointly with the Ministry of Education and Science to eight hundred. This support will help to keep some 488,000 children learning during the ...
09 October 2024

Upward trend in educational results masked by subject, age and location disparities, according to the second phase of the educational quality assessment

The findings focus on mathematics and Ukrainian language and show significant variations in results, with 6th graders on a general upward trend and 8th graders not faring as well, but children across eastern and northern regions and rural pupils lag behind their peers. , KYIV, 09 October 2024, – Despite the int...
08 October 2024

UNICEF supports ‘preschool education’ nomination in Global Teacher Prize 2024

For the second time since 2017, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has awarded a special recognition to a preschool teacher, as part of Global Teacher Prize Ukraine. The winner of this special nomination is Oksana Masovets, a teacher from Kamianets-Podilskyi in the Khmelnytska region, who works at kinderg...
09 September 2024

Children in Ukraine hope to return to classrooms this fall

This year, nine-year-old Arkhip will start fourth grade. He lives in Pervomayskyi, a small town 90 kilometres from Kharkiv, Ukraine. The boy is proud of the school diary, notebooks and stationery that his family has bought for the new school year. Among his new belongings is a tracksuit that he will wear for physi...
06 September 2024

A tragic end to the first week of school for Ukraine’s children

KYIV, 6 September 2024 , – “This week marked the start of a new school year for children across Ukraine. Seven-year-old Emilia was one of them. Tragically she didn’t make it back for the third day. “Emilia was killed in the early hours of 4 September, along with her older sisters, 18-year-old Dariia and 21-year-old Yaryna, and their mother, Yevhenia, when an attack in…
02 September 2024

First day of school in Ukraine marred by attacks

KYIV, 2 September 2024—The start of the new school year in Ukraine was marred by deadly and destructive attacks, further impacting learning for children in the country. In Kyiv, schools were reportedly damaged as children woke up to loud explosions in the early morning hours of Monday. On the eve of the first da...
30 August 2024

After years of upheaval, Ukrainian children catch up with classes

Eight-year-old Alyona stands on tiptoe next to a large photograph of her class, displayed on the wall of her classroom. "This is my friend," she exclaims, pointing to the picture. "And this is my friend.” The youngster does not stop until she has named all 11 students in her class, many of whom she met for the fir...
30 August 2024

Championing Education Amidst the War

Amid the ongoing war, Alla Velikhovska, Head of the Department of Education in the Mykolaiv region, is working tirelessly to keep children learning, whether in schools or online. Since the onset of the full-scale war, Alla has been working with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and other partners to prov...
27 August 2024

Catch-up classes help children in Ukraine recoup lost learning

Last year, 16-year-old Artem became student president of his high school, winning the election with 60 per cent of the vote. Since then, he has created a school website, organized sports competitions and improved his math grades. "But the most important thing is that I made friends and became part of the school's ...
12 June 2024

Ukraine’s recovery is dependent on the recovery of children’s education

GENEVA/BERLIN, 12 June 2024 –, “The war in Ukraine is destroying the country’s greatest resource – its people. Without an increase in investment and sustained funding, children and young people will not be able to access school and training opportunities – critical for the recovery of children, families and their...