More than two thousand schools have closed in Ukraine in 4 years: what is the reason and how the domino effect works

Over the past four years, 2,114 schools have closed in Ukraine. During this time, our country has lost a fifth of rural schools and 5% of urban schools. Overall, the number of schools has decreased by 14% since 2020.

This is reported by Education.ua, citing data from the Institute of Educational Analytics. It is noted that in the 2020-2021 school year, there were 14,815 schools of various forms of ownership in Ukraine, and by the 2023-2024 school year, there will be 12,701 of them left.

The largest reduction is observed in villages – by 20% over the past four years. In the 2020-2021 school year, there were 9293 institutions in villages, and in 2023-2024 there were 7439.

In cities, this trend has also been recorded, but it is less intense. The reduction was by 260 schools, or 5%.

At the same time, as lawyer Dmytro Franchuk notes, the statistics may not be entirely correct, as there are difficulties in collecting data on schools under occupation or in the territories liberated from occupation.

The authors write that the main reason for this situation is the declining number of students. In 2024, there were 14% fewer first-graders than last year.

"Due to a decrease in the number of students, both due to demographic problems and forced migration due to the war, many schools are left without students. This forces the founders to close down small schools, which are becoming financially difficult for local communities to maintain," the article says.

The authors predict that educational reforms will force schools to close or suspend operations. Small settlements may be left without schools, and children may be deprived of access to education close to home.

Another concern is the new version of Order No. 850, which will force schools to suspend operations if they cannot organize full-time education.

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