Ukraine has recorded its lowest number of schoolchildren in 30 years, with just 3.74 million children enrolled, the State Statistics Service of Ukraine reported on Wednesday.
One in ten children who are formally enrolled in the Ukrainian education system are actually living abroad. According to the UN, around 1.4 million Ukrainian refugees worldwide are children aged between 3 and 17.
A UNESCO study shows that almost 665,000 Ukrainian schoolchildren were enrolled in schools in EU countries alone (and not even all of them) last year. However, this figure is incomplete, as it does not take into account all the countries to which Ukrainians have migrated. According to experts, there may be around 720,000 Ukrainian schoolchildren abroad, although there are no accurate data yet.
At the same time, only 29% of them combine education in both countries, and 16% rely entirely on Ukrainian online education. Most Ukrainian children of school and pre-school age live in Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom.
Last October, Ukrainian Education Minister Oksen Lisovyi said that many pupils in grades 10-11, especially boys, were leaving the country. The minister now notes that this trend is continuing but does not pose a serious threat to the education system.
Reasons for leaving Ukraine
The Ministry of Education has provided data on the number of students in grades 8–12 for 2021–2025. Analysis shows that each year, 2–4% of students do not move up to the next grade, i.e. they leave school. This does not necessarily mean that they are leaving the country, but a significant proportion of these children are likely to do so.
The outflow is particularly noticeable among 17-year-old boys, who are eager to leave Ukraine before they turn 18, when leaving becomes restricted due to martial law. However, it is not only boys who are leaving, but girls as well.
According to the Ministry of Education, the proportion of girls in upper secondary education is increasing slightly each year, but the gender gap remains small (1–2%). Among school leavers, this gap can reach 10%.
