Educational institutions under threat: Ministry of Education and Science named schools that will be closed first

Ukraine is actively optimizing the education network. The Ministry of Education and Science notes that this does not mean mass closures of schools, but rather involves their reorganization and adaptation to new conditions. The details of the process were announced by Deputy Minister of Education and Science Andriy Stashkiv.

In particular, the emphasis is on rural schools, where the situation directly depends on the number of students. Educational institutions that have a sufficient number of children will continue their activities. At the same time, in villages where the number of students is steadily decreasing or there are none at all, schools are subject to reorganization.

“Schools should remain, but they need optimization,” Stashkiv emphasized.

He also emphasized that primary schools should be as close as possible to the places where children live. For small schools, various formats for organizing the educational process are possible – set classes, combined classes, and other options.

For basic schools serving secondary students, a larger student body is required, as specialized laboratories and equipment are necessary to study the natural science cycle’s subjects — chemistry, physics, and biology.

The Deputy Minister noted that the Ministry of Education is not the founder of schools — this is the business of territorial communities. They decide how to organize the activities of educational institutions. If a community is ready to finance the support of a school with a small number of students, then it has the right to do so.

It is worth noting that the state program promotes the creation of support schools — large educational institutions to which students from neighboring villages are transported. In 2024, about 2 billion hryvnias have been allocated for these purposes, which will allow the purchase of more than 600 new school buses.

As for high school, the New Ukrainian School reform, effective from 2027, will establish grades 10–11 as separate specialized lyceums by merging existing schools to deliver high-quality education to high school students.