The New ukrainian school in the context of full-scale war: challenges of implementation and development prospects

Abstract

The article explores the peculiarities of implementing the New Ukrainian School reform during the full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war. It analyses changes in financial support, legal framework, human resources, and material-technical base of educational institutions. The research identifies a significant slowdown in the pace of reform caused by the armed aggression, particularly at the level of basic secondary education. A substantial part of the educational budget was redirected to meet the needs of national defense.

Special attention is paid to the absence of a legally defined term «New Ukrainian School» in the current legislation, shortages of qualified teachers, insufficient funding for textbook publishing, and the low remuneration of educators. Despite these obstacles, the article highlights positive developments: the resilience of core New Ukrainian School principles within school environments, the initiative and adaptability of the educational community, and the resumption of targeted state funding in September 2023. These factors collectively indicate the sustained political significance of the reform even amid national crisis. The article also outlines future research directions, including regional comparative studies, analyses of the psycho-emotional state of participants in the educational process, and evaluation of digital learning tools applied under wartime conditions.

The Analytical Report «Education during War: The Experience of Ukrainian Schools» (2024) summarizes the experience of adapting Ukrainian educational institutions to work under martial law and analyzes the problems that Ukrainian secondary education institutions faced during a full-scale invasion. The findings may be of interest to educators, policymakers, researchers, and all stakeholders engaged in the transformation of Ukraine’s educational system.