Education in Times of War

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Education in Times of War

savED Analytics (Fall 2025)

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Executive Summary

As of the end of November 2025, Ukraine’s educational infrastructure has suffered extensive damage. As a result of hostilities, 958 educational institutions have been damaged, and 400 schools have been completely destroyed. More than 20% of the territory remains under temporary occupation by Russia, and the condition of schools in those areas is unknown.

In 2025, out of more than 12,000 schools across Ukraine, 8,420 operated offline. However, the situation in frontline communities differs significantly from the national average — nearly half of students there (49%) study exclusively online.

Key Challenges

The main barriers to learning are the security situation and the energy crisis. In the fall of 2025, an increase in both the number of attacks and the duration of air raid alerts was recorded. This has led to the following consequences:

Learning losses: lessons are constantly interrupted due to the need to remain in shelters.
Students’ psychological well-being: the constant threat of shelling and fragmented lessons negatively affect children’s mood and morale, which in turn impacts their academic performance.
Energy dependence: damage to critical infrastructure causes prolonged power outages, in some cases making stable distance learning impossible.
Technical barriers: regions face unstable internet connectivity and a lack of backup power, both in schools and in households.

Systemic Needs and the Foundation’s Response

To restore children’s access to education, the savED team takes a comprehensive approach. Our core areas of work include:

Creating safe educational spaces in schools: equipping school shelters with modern technology, comfortable furniture, learning materials, and everything needed for extended stays.
EduHive learning centers: opening centers where children can attend lessons and clubs even during prolonged blackouts (when backup power is available).
Underground schools: creating learning spaces for uninterrupted offline education in areas where blended formats are unsafe due to shelling risks.
Learning recovery programs: helping students regain knowledge lost due to interrupted or canceled lessons by providing additional methodological materials for students and teachers.

The current situation in frontline regions confirms that without safe educational infrastructure, comfortable spaces for in-person learning and social interaction, and autonomous energy supply for schools, a stable education process becomes severely constrained — and in some cases, impossible. As a result, the less frequently students are able to attend offline classes, the deeper and more tangible their learning losses become.

Main Content

For children, school is first and foremost about live interaction with friends, the opportunity to gain new knowledge, develop skills and talents, grow, and enjoy meaningful leisure time. Today, however, access to classrooms is obstructed by air raid alerts and the destruction of educational infrastructure caused by the war. This is especially evident in frontline communities, where the need for in-person education is greatest.

This brief compiles data on the security situation and learning conditions in savED’s focus regions: Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv, Sumy, Chernihiv, and Kharkiv regions. These data form the basis for selecting educational, social, and infrastructure solutions aimed at restoring full-fledged offline learning for children.

Where educational institutions have been damaged or completely destroyed, returning to in-person learning is the most challenging.

Despite the destruction, in some areas schools are returning to in-person learning for the first time in four years.

In frontline regions, children attend in-person classes far less frequently than their peers in other regions.

The security situation in de-occupied and border areas remains poor. Even when shelters are available in schools, local authorities often prohibit offline learning due to the constant threat of shelling. As a result, nearly half of students in these areas study exclusively online. According to the savED study “War, Education, and Social Capital,” 49% of students in frontline regions fell into this category as of spring 2025, while in other regions the figure reached 90%.

Lessons lost due to air raid alerts, imperfect distance learning, shelling, and power outages all add to the challenges of mastering the school curriculum and negatively affect children’s psychological well-being.

This is why frontline communities remain a core focus for savED.

To restore offline education in these regions, we take a comprehensive approach: equipping temporary learning spaces and shelters, opening EduHive learning centers where children can attend lessons and extracurricular activities, continuing learning recovery programs, and supporting youth initiatives through the UActive project. Each solution is tailored to the capacity of the community and its partners.

Our goal is singular — to ensure children can learn and interact in person, enjoy diverse leisure opportunities, and see that their communities continue to live despite the destruction and hardships of wartime.

To better understand the educational needs of vulnerable regions, we continue to study the impact of war on education and the challenges it creates.

Security and Blackouts

In the fall, we observed the following trends in frontline regions:

The number of shelling incidents, air raid alerts, and hours spent in shelters increased.
Damage to critical infrastructure led to frequent power outages, resulting in disrupted school operations or partial shifts to online learning.
To ensure safety, schools were forced to switch to distance learning, significantly reducing education quality and limiting the ability to hold educational activities.

Chernihiv region is one of the de-occupied regions bordering Russia and is under constant air attack.

2 educational institutions have been completely destroyed since the start of the full-scale war.
172 schools have been damaged.

With the start of the 2025–2026 school year, shelling in Chernihiv region intensified, along with the frequency and duration of air raid alerts. According to representatives of educational institutions surveyed by savED, the number of hours spent with children in shelters is now higher than last year.

In some communities, air raid alerts last more than 20 hours — and sometimes an entire day.

Despite the overall trend toward a return to offline learning, the share of children studying online or in a blended format in Chernihiv region remains high.

The ability to organize in-person learning is also affected by strikes on critical infrastructure. In particular, in the Horodnia community, a strike on an electrical substation caused prolonged power and water outages, preventing stable offline classes. Some schools also report enemy drones appearing directly over cities. While this has not resulted in large-scale damage to schools, the potential threat alone increases parental anxiety when children are outside the home.

Among the factors complicating distance learning, educators cited communication challenges with students — most often due to unstable internet access during power outages. This creates difficulties both when using digital learning platforms and during online classes.

Not all educational institutions have backup power for blackouts. Some schools have generators or charging stations provided by charitable organizations, which helps mitigate outages. In some cases, institutions have multiple power sources (a generator and an EcoFlow system).

22 schools have been completely destroyed.
252 educational institutions have been damaged.

In the new school year, approximately 80,000 children enrolled in schools across Sumy region, including 5,000 first-graders — 1,306 fewer students than last year.

Of the 293 local educational institutions*:

16 schools operate offline;
223 schools use a blended learning format;
54 institutions operate remotely.

*Data from Vash Shans

Up to 12 hours a day power outages last in the Konotop, Boromlia, and Okhtyrka communities (according to savED).

Weekly changes to outage schedules create unpredictability in the operation of schools and savED’s EduHive learning centers.

Some educational institutions have generators, inverters, or charging stations, allowing for partial offline learning, but these resources are far from universally available. In some schools, backup power is available only in the main building, while the shelter — where EduHive operates — remains without electricity and heating, which is critical during prolonged blackouts.

Despite power outages, during large-scale blackouts some schools can continue operating thanks to alternative heating sources, such as wood-fired boilers. While shelling intensity remains high, it is the energy situation and the condition of school shelters that ultimately determine whether and how schools and savED educational spaces can function.

According to preliminary estimates, in Mykolaiv region*:

33,152 children study in person;
32,593 students use a blended learning format;
25,006 children study remotely.

*Data from GARD.City

Although Ukrainian forces pushed the frontline back in 2022, residents of Mykolaiv region continue to live under the threat of missile and drone attacks.

Since the start of the full-scale war in Mykolaiv region:

33 schools have been completely destroyed;
266 schools have sustained significant damage;
299 educational institutions have minor damage.

According to savED, most educational institutions in the region operate in blended or offline formats, but nearly all communities periodically shift to distance learning. Reasons vary: in the Kostiantynivka community, schools go online due to the lack of gas supply and heating, while in the Novyi Buh community, prolonged power outages are the cause.

Despite relatively fewer attacks compared to other savED focus regions, school administrations across Mykolaiv region report periodic strikes — whether isolated attacks or missile and UAV flyovers. As a result, air raid alerts intensified in the fall, and infrastructure damage further complicated the energy situation.

From 4 to 8 hours per day many communities experience power outages (with Pervomaisk, Horokhivka, Olshanske, and Balovnian communities facing up to 8 hours without electricity, while others lose power for 4–6 hours).

Backup power is unevenly distributed across schools. Some institutions have charging stations provided by donors, enabling autonomy during blackouts. In others, only lighting and minimal equipment function via generators. At the same time, approximately 30% of institutions partnered with the foundation have no alternative power sources at all.

In the 2025–2026 school year, student enrollment in local schools declined by 11.1% (from 114,645 to 101,863 students)*. Approximately 60,000 of them currently live in the region.

*Data from ZPRZ.CITY

Since the start of the full-scale war in Zaporizhzhia region:

2 educational institutions have been destroyed as a result of Russian attacks;
154 schools have been damaged.

Since early 2025, air raid alerts in the region have become longer, and shelling more frequent.

Local communities are targeted not only by cruise and ballistic missiles, but also by drones, guided aerial bombs, and MLRS. Cases of cluster munitions have been recorded. All of this poses risks to educational institutions, residential areas, marketplaces, and power grids.

According to savED tutors, one of the partner gymnasiums in Zaporizhzhia sustained a strike on its football field, while tutors in the Novomykolaivka community recalled an attack that left the school without windows.

The current security situation has led to mandatory evacuations of families with children from several communities (Kushuhum, Novooleksandrivka, and Ternuvate). According to the Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administration, 141 children were evacuated in November 2025, mostly from the Pology and Zaporizhzhia districts.

The region’s energy infrastructure has been heavily damaged. Although most schools have generators, their capacity is sufficient only for shelters, while other facilities — including savED educational centers — must operate without electricity. According to tutors, some school administrations ask educators to limit generator use to conserve fuel. As a result, extracurricular activities in local EduHives are not held.

Dnipropetrovsk region is a frontline region under constant shelling. In August 2025, hostilities began along its eastern border with Donetsk region, and part of the region remains occupied. Since November, forced evacuations of families with children have been ongoing from 22 settlements in the Mezhova and Pokrovske communities of Synelnykove District, located near the frontline.

Since the start of the full-scale invasion in Dnipropetrovsk region:

14 educational institutions have been destroyed;
500 schools have been damaged.

According to savED, some schools (in the Apostolove, Zhovti Vody, Samar, and Pidhorodne communities) operate in blended or offline formats. However, the vast majority periodically shift to distance or blended learning due to ongoing wartime challenges: constant attacks on educational institutions and critical infrastructure, as well as the lack of electricity or heating. The most affected residents are in the Shakhtarske, Vasylkivka, Pavlohrad, and Tomakivka communities.

In communities where savED’s EduHive learning centers operate, tutors report constant threats to children’s lives due to air attacks. As a result, parents are reluctant to allow children to travel far from home. Educators cited cases such as a strike on a shop seven kilometers from a school in the Pishchanka community, where two children — 5th and 8th graders — were killed; and direct attacks on schools in the Vasylkivka and Mezhova communities. In settlements across Synelnykove District, enemy drones strike homes and other civilian infrastructure, as well as mines and bridges.

Currently, all schools and EduHives have backup power: almost all institutions report having generators, and some have both generators and charging stations.

Kharkiv region has been under constant Russian shelling since 2022, both from occupied territories and active combat zones. This affects all aspects of daily life, making stable work and access to offline education impossible.

Since the start of the full-scale invasion in the region:

101 educational institutions have been completely destroyed;
742 schools have been damaged.

According to savED, local schools operate under missile and artillery threats, especially in the Vovchansk, Kupiansk, Lypetske, and Derhachi communities, necessitating population evacuations.

Some communities in Kharkiv region remain under constant threat of renewed Russian offensives, resulting in:

military administrations prohibiting a return to blended or offline learning;
most schools shifting to distance learning;
partial or complete inability to use shelters due to artillery threats.

Most communities report both an increase in air raid alerts and a change in the nature of attacks. While threats previously occurred mainly at night, attacks now increasingly take place during the day, including during lessons. The number of Shahed drone launches has increased, as have cases of guided aerial bombs reaching some settlements.

On October 22, 2025, Russia attacked a private kindergarten in Kharkiv. All 48 children were in a shelter at the time, but suffered severe shock. In the Balakliia community, following a massive nighttime attack, children attending an EduHive were affected: some families lost their homes or transportation, several students’ apartments were damaged, and one boy sustained injuries from a collapsed ceiling slab. Some students sought psychological assistance due to trauma.

In some communities, including Derhachi, periodic MLRS use increases risks for both educational institutions and residents. Damage to critical infrastructure leads to prolonged outages of electricity, water, heating, and communications, complicating even online learning. In the Sheludkivka and Pishchanka communities, multi-day power and heating outages following attacks severely disrupted the organization of education. In some institutions, heat pumps stopped working, causing buildings to cool rapidly, forcing schools to shorten lessons or switch to distance learning.

The issue of backup power has largely been addressed across institutions. However, where generators are available, other challenges arise — including fuel shortages and limited equipment use. In many communities, the situation has been partially resolved through donor-provided charging stations.

Duration of Air Raid Alerts and the Learning Process

On average, air raid alerts “consumed” one out of every five lessons during the 2024–2025 school year*.

Between 08:00 and 15:00, classes are most often interrupted by air raid alerts — during core learning hours**.

*Nationwide data from Save the Children
**Data from VoxUkraine

Chernihiv Region

Open-source data confirm feedback from teachers and school administrations where savED operates. Of the 23 surveyed representatives of educational institutions in Chernihiv region, 11 indicated that the average duration of air raid alerts during school hours is 4–6 hours; five reported 2–4 hours; two said alerts last more than 6 hours during lessons; and only one reported 1–2 hours.

Sumy Region

Thus, school lessons are most often interrupted during peak learning hours — from the start of the school day until lunchtime. This significantly reduces the duration and stability of the learning process. A second peak in air raid alerts occurs in the evening (20:00–21:00). Although children are already at home, stress prevents them from fully resting, which in turn affects their learning.

Mykolaiv Region

Zaporizhzhia Region

According to tutors, teachers, and school administrators, frequent and prolonged air raid alerts force educators to interrupt lessons, negatively affecting the learning process. After mass shelling, parents are more likely to keep children at home.

The situation is further worsened by prolonged power outages following attacks on infrastructure. This complicates even online learning, as not all families have backup power and stable internet access.

Dnipropetrovsk Region

Throughout the day, the highest number of air raid alerts occurs in the morning hours (8:00–10:00) and in the afternoon and evening (13:00–14:00, 18:00–20:00). These periods coincide with the most active phases of the school day (8:00–15:00) and evening hours when children are at home.

Between 4 and 9 air raid alerts are recorded in the region every hour.

Such frequent interruptions make lesson planning nearly impossible, while the learning process itself becomes fragmented and exhausting for both students and teachers. According to Save the Children, last year students in Dnipropetrovsk region missed more than 40% of lessons.

Kharkiv Region

Most tutors working in savED learning centers find it difficult to name a specific number of lost instructional hours. At the same time, some educators note that the learning process is not interrupted, as during air raid alerts classes continue in shelters.

The learning format in the region has been adapted to constant alerts, so tutors do not define “interruptions” as a separate occurrence. As for teachers surveyed by the savED team, they mostly report 1–2 hours of learning loss, or a fully remote format, or holding certain lessons directly in shelters.

Shelters and learning spaces