"Students don't see prospects," said the school director, explaining the reasons behind the mass exodus of students abroad.

Recently, the director of the distance school "Unicorn School" and PhD in Economics, Vladimir Strashko, reported a critical number of inquiries from parents planning to take their children out of Ukraine. He specifically noted that some schools have lost up to 90% of their students. Initially, this issue was more prevalent among boys, but it has now extended to girls as well.

UNIAN spoke with Vladimir Strashko to understand the scale of this problem, whether the government is addressing it, and what consequences it might have for the country.

Vladimir, in your note, you mentioned that children have begun leaving even distance schools in Ukraine in large numbers. How global is this issue, and what are its causes?

Distance learning became very popular in Ukraine when COVID-19 began. However, by 2021, people had somewhat adapted. The next significant surge occurred in 2022 when the war started, and people began leaving the country en masse. This was a reaction to uncertainty.

At that time, we received numerous messages from parents who wanted their children to complete the school year. By late 2022 and early 2023, people began returning to Ukraine, hoping the war would end.

This situation continued into 2024. However, in the past few months, starting around late August to early September, we began receiving a very high, almost abnormal number of messages stating that they were leaving the country and needed help completing their Ukrainian education to enroll in universities in Europe.

Previously, this type of motivation did not exist. Parents of 10th and 11th graders are now taking their children out and stating they want to complete their education in an external format—two years in one—to obtain a certificate and then enroll somewhere in Europe.

This deeply concerns me because distance education used to be merely an alternative to traditional schooling. It did not have a strong correlation with the motive of leaving the Ukrainian education system as a whole. Now we see this happening. This is the first category of people who want to obtain a certificate and enroll in a university abroad. And there are many of them.

In some classes, even in the 11th grade, among the children studying with us, up to 90% belong to this category. We understand that these are families who want their children to enroll in higher education institutions outside of Ukraine.

This trend was previously more common among boys trying to avoid mobilization and leave before turning 18. However, now girls are also being taken out, which is an atypical trend. Even parents of girls are starting to take them out to study elsewhere.

The second category of people I mentioned includes children who have been abroad for several years. For instance, they left in 2022 and have remained in their countries. Previously, they continued to receive a Ukrainian secondary education, studying simultaneously at their foreign schools and our school (the Ukrainian one).

However, now these individuals have started to state that they have decided to abandon Ukrainian education as they plan to stay there. This issue affects all age categories, not just 10th and 11th graders.

Thus, the school serves as a litmus test reflecting societal sentiments. We see that this trend of outflow has significantly increased. This is why I stated that it is a catastrophe, a major problem. We need to take it into account, as at this rate, we will not only have to optimize higher education institutions, as Mr. Vinnytsky, for example, has mentioned, but we may need to do it even more radically because who will enroll in universities?

Moreover, there is another issue: these children are falling out of the Ukrainian context. It used to be one thing when people studied in Europe, completed their schooling in Ukraine, went abroad for higher education, and had the opportunity to return. That was educational tourism, which is great. When there is a chance to obtain excellent higher education and then come back to work with us.

But now it is not about that at all. It is about them making a conscious choice. That's it; they will be here. They will adapt and stay. They perceive education in schools and universities as a quick socialization process for their children.

Does this trend only concern frontline cities like Kharkiv? Or is this issue relevant across Ukraine?

I would be significantly less worried if this were only about Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk region, Donetsk, or Zaporizhia. Unfortunately, it is not. This is a story that is not geographically bound.

We have many clients since 2022 who have left even from Ivano-Frankivsk region and Lviv. They are also making decisions to stay in Europe or in the countries where they are. They associate this more with not seeing prospects here.

There is another layer—this is something that is not often discussed, but it exists. When parents see a threat to themselves—I mean men—they want to cross the border somehow. And naturally, they take their families with them. We also receive requests stating that they have moved and need to study.

We see that discussions about lowering the mobilization age continue. There are even rumors about possible mobilization of women in Ukraine. Does this also contribute to parents' motivation to take their children out of Ukraine?

Yes, absolutely, this is one of the factors for parents choosing education abroad for their children.

The issue of children's departure is not only about schools but also about future universities. During COVID-19, there were cases when Ukrainian universities closed or merged due to a lack of students. Is this threat now even more significant?

I believe the Ministry of Education is doing the right thing here. Because optimizing the network of higher educational institutions is not just a wish; it is a necessity. First and foremost, we will have to do this.

Secondly, we are looking at an extremely large demographic gap from this generation that is supposed to finish school, enroll in universities, and move on to work. We could accelerate the aging of the nation even more. This will catastrophically affect not only education but also the labor market and the economy as a whole. Because there simply won’t be anyone to work.

And right now, we are not hearing about any government initiatives to attract foreigners to work in Ukraine. Although there is no current problem with job vacancies. There are many job openings. The problem lies elsewhere. The issue is that there are not enough people to work. And there are many layers to this. The first layer is that there are physically not enough specialists of the level that enterprises need.

The second layer is geographical attachment. For example, in the Chernihiv region, there are fewer people than enterprises.

The third category is that men are afraid to be officially employed because there are no transparent tools for reservation. If it is an enterprise, there must be official employment, without private entrepreneurs. Because of safety regulations and so on. They perceive it as a one-way ticket. That is, now the enterprise will report about them, and they will immediately receive a summons. Just like that.

Now, imagine if the current situation worsens due to the outflow of young people who could replace someone in a year, two, or five and enter the labor market. What will we do?

In fact, this problem is ongoing. Even if the war ends, families that have decided to stay abroad will not return to Ukraine. Will schools face challenges in enrolling new students in the future?

I believe schools will face a significant challenge. They already have one at present. We already have a problem with the network. In some rural areas, when schools are optimized, they have issues with filling.

However, there is also a diametrically opposite situation. For instance, I worked in Irpin, conducting training for teachers. There, the situation is such that they have one of the largest schools in Ukraine in terms of student numbers. In one school, there are 2700 students. They have a regular three-story building where 2700 children study and a shelter for 700 children.

This means they operate in three shifts. Can you imagine what this means in terms of teacher workload and children's mental health? Then we receive an air raid alert, and all these children go down to the shelter where they do not study. And what does this lead to? It increases educational losses, which accumulate like a snowball.

Therefore, the school must, first and foremost, work on flexibility. Personally, I am very glad that we now have a developed market for distance education. Schools, especially private ones, have become more flexible in terms of formats, material delivery, gamification, and so on.

This is great, but it is not systemic. Because systemic means that it is implemented at the state level for everyone as a requirement. Therefore, I think we will have to work very hard on combinations of "Educational Technologies" and traditional education. We need to address educational losses. And we need to tackle issues of motivation, engagement, and professionalization of teachers.

Because we have seen this year that the number of students entering pedagogical universities has significantly decreased. Adding a demographic problem and a systemic issue in schools results in a significant boom.

Considering all these problems—are there any potential