Continuing education of ninth-graders in high school: the Ministry of Education’s solution for children receiving education during the war
The education of Ukrainian children during the war depends on whether the state maintains clear rules for the transition from one stage of education to another, so that students do not find themselves in a situation where the conditions for completing education change in the middle of their school journey. The Ministry of Education and Science explained how ninth-graders who do not study according to the New Ukrainian School curriculum will complete school.
The Ministry of Education and Science’s decision on the education of ninth-graders
As reported by Deputy Minister of Education and Science Nadiya Kuzmichova, this category of students will retain the opportunity to continue their studies and complete them according to the agreed state standard, the validity of which will be extended until 2028.
This is about the extension of the already agreed standard, so that students who followed the Standard Educational Program, approved by the order of the Ministry of Education and Science of April 20, 2018, could continue their studies without a break and obtain a complete general secondary education. In practical terms, this means that these students will not be in a situation where they find themselves between two systems, one of which is completed, and the other is not provided for them.
The explanation from the Ministry of Education and Science appeared after the educational ombudsman Nadiya Leshchyk stated that the standard and program for the tenth and eleventh grades for the 2026/27 and 2027/28 academic years had not been developed. The reason for this concern was that the current state standard and program for third-level general secondary education institutions will expire on September 1, 2026.
At this point, the most pressing question arose for children who are already studying according to the old trajectory: if one standard ends its validity, and a new one has not been defined for these years for those who are not in the NUS system, then by what rules should they graduate from high school. The ministry’s response is that the validity of this standard will be extended until all schoolchildren who followed the corresponding standard program complete their studies.
What does this decision mean for children whose school path coincided with the war
For students who go through the teenage stage of education in conditions of war, the most painful thing is not only the complexity of the study itself, but also the lack of clear rules for the near future, without which any transition to high school turns into a zone of anxiety for the family. In such a situation, the continuation of the state standard looks primarily as an attempt to preserve the continuity of education for a specific group of children who are already studying in conditions of prolonged instability.
The essence of this approach is that ninth-graders who did not study according to the New Ukrainian School program will not be forced to find themselves in an indefinite gap between the old and new rules. For a teenager who is on the verge of basic and high school, such clarity is no less important than the program itself, since it makes it possible to complete education according to the logic by which the previous years of study were already completed.
The extension of the standard until 2028 is not tied to an abstract date, but to the need to complete the education of those schoolchildren who are already studying according to the 2018 Standard Educational Program. That is why we are not talking about a new rewriting of the rules for the entire system, but about continuing the current mechanism for a specific category of students so that they can receive a complete general secondary education without an administrative break at the stage of transition to the tenth grade.
In this logic, the ministry actually confirms that the education system must take into account the real state of schools and children who are already moving according to the previous program. In wartime, such caution becomes especially important, since abrupt changes without a transitional mechanism would primarily affect those students for whom school remains one of the few structures where predictability should be maintained.
What is happening with the school network in communities
Separately, Nadiya Kuzmychova explained the situation with the network of educational institutions, which also affects the future of current ninth-graders. According to her, 35–40% of communities already have approved networks and reorganized institutions. At the same time, the reorganization itself does not mean an automatic loss of the license, and this issue is one of the most sensitive for many parents and teachers, since it is directly related to the ability to complete their education in a familiar or at least understandable legal regime.
This detail is of particular importance for children of war, whose educational trajectory already often depends on decisions made at the community, regional, or ministerial level. If a school changes its status, the main thing for families is not the name of the institution itself, but the guarantee that the teenager will not lose the opportunity to continue studying and receive an education document within the framework of the system in which he studied before.
How will the mechanism work after the reorganization of the school
Nadiya Kuzmichova noted that if the people’s deputies support the proposed changes to the law, even after the reorganization of the school into a gymnasium, such institutions will be able to submit requests for a license according to the old standard, where children study for 11 years. Since the licensing authority is the region, it will be able to issue a certificate of complete general secondary education to current ninth-graders.
Behind the seemingly technical announcement of the state standard lies a much larger problem of Ukrainian education during wartime, where a child is forced to study in circumstances where even the usual movement from ninth to tenth grade requires separate explanations from the state. Therefore, the news of the extension of the standard is important for thousands of families who are waiting for an answer to a very specific question: will their child be able to finish school without changing the rules midway.
In this situation, the emphasis shifts from the bureaucratic procedure itself to the right of children whose education takes place during wartime to receive a consistent and understandable educational trajectory. It is precisely maintaining such a trajectory that becomes the main content of the decision that the ministry is talking about, since behind each reference to a standard, license, or program is not an abstract system, but a teenager who needs to finish school without another unnecessary gap.
