Kyiv schools have introduced mixed learning for the new academic year, requiring adequate air raid shelters and alternative power supplies to offer in-person classes, according to an educational expert.
Ivanna Kobernyk, co-founder of the educational organisations Batkivskyi Kontrol and Smart Osvita, said Kyiv is now adapting to the wartime conditions that cities including Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy and Kryvyi Rih have endured for years.
While Kyiv does not face guided aerial bombs or fibre-optic drones, the capital has experienced an increase in ballistic missiles and up to 2,500 jet-powered drone attacks a month. This has resulted in air raid alerts lasting up to 14 hours.
Kobernyk, who served as an advisor to Ukraine's education minister from 2016 to 2020, said parents and school staff must choose between evacuating, studying exclusively in shelters, moving to shelters multiple times a day, or attending in-person classes a few days a week. She noted that some schools in the Kharkiv region continue to operate in shelters despite official regional orders to evacuate.
Shelter and power requirements
Face-to-face education will only proceed in schools with shelters that allow the learning process to continue. The spaces must be equipped with desks and chairs, rather than just benches along the walls.
Kobernyk dismissed demands for a single educational algorithm for all schools, noting that a uniform approach would force the closure of schools that have successfully created safe learning conditions.
There will be no uniform justice across the city, as facilities vary widely. Schools built between 50 and 70 years ago often have large basements that can be fitted with old furniture. Buildings constructed in the 1930s or 1980s frequently lack basements entirely, meaning their students will face a different reality.
Alternative power is also essential to ensure continuous electricity during outages. Some schools in Kyiv's Troieshchyna district have secured backup systems from donors, providing six hours of uninterrupted power. Other schools missed out on the equipment because their principals were dismissive toward donor representatives last winter, challenging them to prove the systems were necessary.
Private schools and tutors
Vacant places in small, relatively affordable private schools with proper shelters are expected to fill up. Kobernyk said these spots would be taken by parents earning an official average Kyiv salary of 50,000 hryvnias, who need certainty that their children are safe while they work.
Private institutions currently educate about 10 percent of pupils in the capital.
For families unable to afford private education, the options are limited. Kobernyk advised parents to either find a state school with a functional shelter, abandoning sentiments about their original schools and classmates, or hire tutors and study at home.
The recommended tutor subjects are Ukrainian, mathematics, Ukrainian history and one optional subject. Kobernyk said no student could effectively learn more than six subjects simultaneously, advising parents of children in the first to eighth grades to focus on four to six core classes alongside a sport or hobby. Older students will find the situation harder, as they cannot abandon their wider studies.
Curriculum cannot be fulfilled
The Ministry of Education and Science has been urged to admit that the current State Standard for education cannot be fulfilled under wartime conditions, a conclusion already reached in monitoring reports by the State Service of Quality of Education and the Ukrainian Centre for Educational Quality Assessment.
The curriculum assumes students attend all lessons without interruption. In subjects like mathematics, where each lesson introduces a new topic, a missed class due to an air raid means the material remains unlearned. If schools proceed without proper online platforms, route sheets and step-by-step instructions for distance learning, the syllabus will not be completed.
Kobernyk called for a total overhaul of the curriculum, including identifying a core of knowledge and shifting from a linear to a concentric teaching approach, particularly in science and mathematics. She said simply condensing or shortening the existing programmes was impossible.
The upcoming PISA-2025 educational assessment results, due to be announced on September 8, are expected to highlight these shortfalls.
Alternative education models
Alternative schooling models have struggled to launch. In 2023, Kobernyk and colleagues developed a concept for visiting schools in frontline regions, proposing that students and teachers travel to safe areas for three weeks, three times a year. The idea proved too complex and expensive for state funding, and faced resistance from teachers unwilling to travel. Some frontline communities have since self-funded single trips.
The education ministry also holds a concept for boarding schools, which has not been widely implemented due to funding constraints and delayed decision-making. Kobernyk noted that while diversifying warehouses was once considered too expensive for businesses, it is now standard practice, suggesting schools must also adapt.
Boarding schools are considered suitable for ninth-grade students and above, provided they have a healthy social culture. The model works for academically gifted children, such as those at the physics and mathematics lyceums in Kyiv and Lviv, or the Obdarovanist lyceum in Kharkiv, provided there is an honest selection process. Kobernyk warned that placing struggling students in these environments in the hope they catch up would result in a Soviet-style orphanage experience.
Awaiting drone interceptors
The current anxiety in Kyiv mirrors the reaction to earlier waves of attacks when up to 600 drones targeted the capital in a single day. The situation improved with the deployment of interceptors, which on one occasion stopped 297 out of 300 drones that crossed the border. Kobernyk said residents must now wait for the deployment of interceptors capable of downing the new jet-powered drones.
The military commander known as Madyar said Ukraine would stand and Moscow would fall. He said the country would be rebuilt and educational losses would be overcome, though he cautioned that the recovery would require additional time.
