“School closure is not a reform, but a dismantling of the basic social function of the state”: Andriy Pavlovskyi
During the war, the Ukrainian state actively talks about reconstruction, stability, and the future. But at this very moment, in the real space of Ukrainian villages, one of the most important functions of the state — ensuring basic access to education — is being systematically curtailed. Under the pressure of military spending, budget constraints and the demographic crisis, the authorities make decisions that may turn out to be irreversible. It is about the government’s plans to stop funding schools with fewer than 45 students from September 1, 2025.
Andriy Pavlovskyi, an expert on social policy issues and People’s Deputy of Ukraine of the 6th and 7th convocations, expressed his public position on this matter. His estimates are tough, but based on an analysis of the systemic picture. He reported, that from September 1, 2025, the government will stop funding schools with fewer than 45 students. This decision will affect at least 403 educational institutions operating mainly in rural areas. The fates of thousands of children, their parents and teachers, who will be left without work, without choices and without options, are at risk.
“Formally, the authorities call this “optimization of costs”. In fact, it is the liquidation of the network of rural schools!
The negative dynamics are unequivocal: in 2020, 14,815 schools were operating in Ukraine, and in 2024 – 12,268. Minus 2.5 thousand schools in four years!
The cynical and financial logic is clear: maintaining one student in the village costs an average of 30.4 thousand. UAH per year, in the city – 24.4 thousand. UAH UAH At the same time, the birth rate in the country is falling, plus the mass departure of women with children, the evacuation of teenage boys abroad. Schools are empty. And money is needed for defense,” – the expert emphasized.
The numbers are cold, but behind them are destinies, displacements, destroyed communities, the outflow of young families. Schools are empty – due to falling birth rates, evacuation, emigration.
According to Andriy Pavlovsky, the mechanical closing of schools is not a reform, but the dismantling of the basic social function of the state.
Andrii Pavlovskyi emphasized that after the closing of the school, young families leave the village en masse, and the Ukrainian village is dying out. He believes that rural education can be reorganized and modernized, but it is easier for officials to close it. At the same time, he noted that simpler does not mean better.
The expert emphasized that without minimum guaranteed access to education, even in a flexible or combined format, it is meaningless to talk about the development of rural regions. He believes that in the short term the government will save, but in the long term it will pay more. At the same time, as Pavlovsky noted, it will no longer be a ringing coin, but a heavy social price.
Therefore, according to the expert, reforms without a social background turn into destruction. At the same time, the destruction of the educational network is no longer a budgetary decision, but a political responsibility. And if this policy is not revised in the near future, Ukraine will lose its villages.
