Education Leaders in Wartime Ukraine: Minister Lisovyi, Underground Schools, Digital Learning

Education during full-scale war is not an abstraction. Keeping children learning when their city is being bombed, when their teachers have fled, when their school building has been destroyed, and when air raid sirens interrupt every lesson is an extraordinary operational challenge — one with profound implications not just for individuals but for the entire social fabric of a society attempting to maintain normality amid catastrophe. Ukraine's education system has confronted this challenge with varying degrees of success across different regions and circumstances, but the overall picture — millions of children continuing some form of education despite one of the most intense conventional military conflicts in decades — represents an institutional achievement that deserves serious recognition.

Minister Oksen Lisovyi: System Leadership Under Fire

Oksen Lisovyi was appointed Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine in October 2022, inheriting a ministry managing the largest education emergency in Europe since World War II. Over 3,000 educational institutions had been damaged or destroyed by that point; millions of students were displaced abroad or internally; teachers were serving in the military, volunteering, or themselves displaced; and the entire curriculum was being rapidly adapted to incorporate wartime reality. Lisovyi's management priorities included maintaining educational continuity through digital and hybrid formats, rebuilding destroyed schools with bomb shelter infrastructure that would allow safe in-person learning, coordinating with refugees' host country education systems, and advancing the reform agenda that EU accession required — including curriculum de-Russification and modernization — in the middle of an active war.

The policy decision to continue reopening schools with adequate bomb shelters, rather than maintaining universal remote learning indefinitely, was central to Lisovyi's approach. Research on children's educational and developmental outcomes under extended distance learning was deeply concerning; the social, psychological, and cognitive costs of isolation from school were real even for children in relative safety. The ministry attempted to balance shelter safety requirements with the developmental need for in-person education.

Underground Schools: Kharkiv's Extraordinary Solution

In Kharkiv — Ukraine's second city and its most bombed major urban center, situated 30 kilometers from the Russian border — Mayor Ihor Terekhov and city authorities developed one of the war's most striking educational adaptations: full-time underground schools in the city's Metro system. Kharkiv Metro stations, converted to serve as long-term shelter for the city's population during the war's most dangerous periods, were fitted with classrooms, internet connections, ventilation improvements, and educational materials. Children whose surface schools were too dangerous to attend received regular in-person instruction in the tunnels. By 2024, Kharkiv had established multiple underground educational facilities serving thousands of students — a model that balanced the safety imperative with the developmental need for structured, in-person learning.

Wartime Education in Numbers

Online Learning Infrastructure

Ukraine's rapid pivot to distance learning after the 2020 COVID pandemic — which the country managed with the same digital government agility it brought to other challenges — established infrastructure that was partially in place when the 2022 war began. The All-Ukrainian Online School platform (Всеукраїнська школа онлайн), developed as a COVID-19 response, was rapidly scaled and adapted for wartime use. Internet connectivity — maintained partly through the Starlink network when terrestrial infrastructure was damaged — enabled continued access for many students. Educational technology companies including Prometheus, EdEra, and GoITeens expanded their content and reduced or eliminated fees for wartime use.

Curriculum Reform During War

The war dramatically accelerated the curriculum reform process that had been underway since 2016. Russian literature was removed from the compulsory curriculum. A new national history curriculum emphasized Ukrainian national development, culture, and identity distinct from the Soviet and Russian historical frames. The Ukrainian language — already the official language of instruction in most schools — was further strengthened relative to Russian-language instruction. These changes were both genuinely educationally motivated (addressing a curriculum that had been shaped by Soviet priorities) and politically significant — the curriculum is a battleground in the cultural war Russia has waged against Ukrainian identity.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do Ukrainian children abroad continue their education?

Ukrainian children abroad face complex dual-education challenges: functioning in host country school systems (often in different languages) while maintaining Ukrainian curriculum continuity. Some host countries — particularly Poland and Germany — established Ukrainian-language educational streams or intensive support programs. The Ukrainian government maintained supplementary online Ukrainian curriculum programs for diaspora and refugee children, recognizing that educational continuity was a component of maintaining national identity and preparing for eventual return. Integration outcomes varied significantly by host country policy and individual family circumstances.

What happened to teachers during the war?

Teachers — a predominantly female profession in Ukraine — experienced the war through multiple roles simultaneously: educators, volunteers, family members navigating displacement, and in some cases contributors to humanitarian response. Male teachers subject to mobilization faced the choice between teaching and military service. School communities became social support hubs in many communities, with teacher networks distributing aid and providing psychological support alongside education. Teachers in frontline areas, underground schools, and temporary accommodations demonstrated extraordinary commitment to their students under conditions that would have been unimaginable in peacetime.

Are schools in occupied territories continuing?

Schools in Russian-occupied territories have been placed under Russian curriculum and administration — a central component of the cultural erasure strategy. Russian-controlled "schools" in occupied areas teach Russian curriculum, including Russian state history narratives, ban Ukrainian language instruction, and are staffed after the flight or removal of Ukrainian-loyal teachers. UNICEF, UNESCO, and human rights organizations have documented this cultural pressure as part of the broader forced Russification of occupied populations. Children's education under occupation is one of the most acute dimensions of the cultural war.

How is the international community supporting Ukrainian education?

UNICEF has been the lead international organization supporting Ukrainian education — funding school reconstruction with bomb shelters, distributing learning materials, providing psychosocial support, and supporting the digital learning infrastructure. The World Bank, EU, and bilateral donors committed substantial financing for educational infrastructure reconstruction. USAID funded school rebuilding and digital learning programs. European educational exchanges — the Erasmus+ program was maintained for Ukrainian students and researchers despite the war — kept academic connections alive and provided opportunities for Ukrainian scholars and students who had temporarily relocated to EU countries.

Will the war create long-term educational deficits?

Educational researchers are deeply concerned about the long-term developmental and educational impact on the wartime generation — children who experienced years of disrupted schooling, psychological trauma, displacement, and in many cases personal loss. International experience with other prolonged conflicts suggests multi-year learning losses are typical and require sustained recovery investments. Ukraine has committed to making educational recovery a central element of its post-war reconstruction agenda, and international support organizations have begun developing the assessment and remediation frameworks necessary for large-scale educational catch-up programming.

Sources

1. Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine. Official Reports and Statistics. mon.gov.ua, 2022–2024.
2. UNICEF Ukraine. Education Cluster Reports. unicef.org/ukraine, 2022–2024.
3. UNESCO. Education Cannot Wait: Ukraine. unesco.org, 2022–2024.
4. UNHCR. Ukrainian Refugee Children Education Access Data. unhcr.org, 2022–2024.
5. Save the Children. Learning from Bunkers: Ukrainian Education Under Attack. savethechildren.net, 2023.