Ukraine faces serious education in the field of education. According to the Ministry of Education and Science, the number of first -graders by 2029 may be reduced by one third. Deputy Minister of Education and Science, Galina Kuzmichova, noted that this trend is already noticeable: the current first -graders are 30% less than numerous compared to the students of the seventh grade.
The reasons for reducing
the main factors of such a downture are low birth rates and migration. The war and socio-economic difficulties forced many parents to go abroad with their children. According to the director of the Unicorn School, Vladimir Strashko, some schools have lost up to 90% of students, and this problem has affected both boys and girls.
Indicators indicate that more than half of Ukrainian schools are filled with less than 200 children. Galina Kuzmichova emphasized that communities should review their approaches to educational infrastructure. “The illusion that all 13,000 schools have the future, no longer works. Optimization of a network of schools becomes a necessary reality, ”she stressed.
The main idea that the MES promotes is to bet on the quality of education, even if it requires reducing the number of institutions. It is necessary to build schools that meet modern needs, not simply hold the buildings of the Soviet period.
Over the past four years, the number of schools in Ukraine has decreased by 2 thousand. This is especially true of rural institutions where the population is declining rapidly. In cities, this trend is less noticeable, but there the demographic decline becomes obvious.
According to experts, optimization of the school network is inevitable. But communities should approach this issue carefully, providing access to quality education even in the most remote corners of the country. Distance learning may be one of the solutions.
In the conditions of war and crisis, reform in the field of education become a matter of national security. After all, quality education is the key to the competitiveness of future generations.
