Declining number of children from occupied territories in Ukrainian online schools: what’s behind the numbers
The issue of education for children who remain in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine remains one of the most painful topics in recent years. The conditions in which they found themselves not only make access to Ukrainian language education difficult, but gradually destroy the very possibility of choice. Formally, the Ukrainian state keeps distance learning tools for them, open online schools, special educational centers for admission to universities. However, behind these structures there is more and more emptiness.
Education as a risk: why learning Ukrainian is becoming dangerous
In 2025, only 44,000 children with TOT joined Ukrainian schools through distance formats. A year ago, there were 56,000 of them, which is almost a quarter of the losses in just one year.
Commissioner for Education Nadiya Leshchyk in her public speech confirmed this sharp decline, at the same time outlined several layers of reasons – some of them objective, others – symptomatic. Together, they testify to the deep degradation of the connection between the Ukrainian education system and those who remain in the occupied territories.
According to the ombudsman, the first are direct security risks. Studying according to the Ukrainian program, even remotely, is a marker today. If a family allows a child to study in a Ukrainian school, it automatically comes under the attention of local occupation administrations or special services. At best, this ends in interrogations, at worst, arrests, searches or harassment of teachers who remain on the premises and teach online.
Maintaining such contacts becomes a form of resistance, but not every family is ready to take risks due to children’s access to Ukrainian educational content. In conditions of total control and denunciations, distance learning can become a formal pretext for repression.
Another factor is demographic. Some of the children completed their schooling: they graduated from the 9th and 11th grades. But new first classes are practically not recruited. Not because they don’t want to, but because families don’t see the point in formal registration in a Ukrainian school, when this requires a stable internet platform, adult participation, and the educational process itself is conducted from outside the region — often without interaction and support. In addition, some school-age children no longer study at all — in some communities, complete refusal of parents even from the formal educational process is recorded.
One-way ticket: why fewer and fewer children are leaving to enroll
For several years now, a simplified system of admission to Ukrainian higher education institutions has been in place for children from the occupied territories. The “Donbas-Ukraine” and “Crimea-Ukraine” centers work with applications, form separate educational quotas, help with logistics and adaptation. However, the number of those willing to use it is constantly decreasing. According to Leschyk, the reason is the irreversibility of such a step. If the child leaves the temporarily occupied territory to the controlled territory, it means that he will not be able to return. The family must choose: either to stay all together, or to send the child alone, often through third countries, with risks and high costs.
Such a trip is a logistics that requires clear organization, legal decisions and money. And the main thing is the readiness to accept the final break with the previous life. Not everyone is capable of this. That is why many families, even realizing that the child has the right to enroll without NMT, with discounts, benefits, do not dare to take this step.
The ombudsman also emphasized that children often simply do not know about the possibilities of admission, benefits or online education. And here the key role should be played by those teachers who still conduct Ukrainian online lessons for children from the occupation. It is they who remain the channel of communication – not only educational, but also worldview. Through them, you can convey information that it is possible to join, that there is a legal mechanism, that there is a support structure.
But there are few such teachers. And their resources are limited. The isolation in which the families found themselves is increasing not only territorially, but also substantively: in these conditions, the formal availability of rights does not mean practical availability.
According to estimates, there are approximately 600,000 Ukrainian children in the temporarily occupied territories, of which only 44,000 have at least some connection with the Ukrainian school system. These children are a vulnerable minority who live in a dual reality: physically in a system that tries to assimilate, they simultaneously hold on to a different identity through education, but they are becoming fewer.
What can be done
- Teacher support. All teachers who work with children with TOT should have methodical, psychological and technical support.
- Targeted communication with families. Not general campaigns, but personalized appeals through messengers, senior students, familiar chains of trust – with detailed instructions, how to enter, how to leave, what is needed.
- Temporary relocation programs for applicants. If full relocation is not possible, there should be schemes for short-term entry and return, with travel and housing support.
- Targeted information through clear channels. Parents and children from the occupied territories often do not know about the admission procedure or do not understand how it works in practice. What is important is not general campaigns, but specific explanations — how to submit documents, through which countries you can leave, how much it costs, who accompanies you. Such information should be conveyed through those who are still trusted – teachers, relatives, local initiatives, familiar communication channels.
The decrease in the number of children from the temporarily occupied territories who are involved in the Ukrainian education system is the result of several processes at the same time: fear, pressure, lack of safe conditions, logistical difficulties and gradual loss of connection with the Ukrainian educational space. Formal support mechanisms remain — but their effectiveness depends not only on the availability of benefits or drop-in centers, but on the extent to which these opportunities are realistically achievable for families who remain isolated.
Access to education is not only a matter of rights, but also of trust, resources, and security. Until these conditions are created, the number of students will decrease, regardless of how many benefits the state offers. Only targeted support, direct communication with hesitant families, and the constant presence of a teacher the child knows and trusts can make a real difference. Without this simplification, procedures will remain on paper.
