Kim: 59 schools may be closed in Mykolaiv region due to understaffing

In Mykolaiv region, 59 schools may be closed due to insufficient number of students for full-time education. The regional authorities are trying to get a delay or an exception for frontline schools.

This was announced by the head of the Mykolaiv Regional Military Administration Vitalii Kim during a telethon, according to NikVesti.

As you know, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine has approved Order №1112. It provides for mandatory full-time education of students, including IDPs, at the place of their actual residence.

As a result, 59 schools may be closed in Mykolaiv region, 48 of which are near the frontline, said Vitalii Kim.

«Schools operate in a mixed mode and I am aware of the risks of Order №1112, where 59 schools may be closed, 48 of them are frontline schools, and many people will lose their jobs. We have talked to the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and the Cabinet of Ministers about postponing or introducing a coefficient for the frontline regions, but this issue is still open. What is the problem? Because these are mostly schools that were under occupation and did not make contact with the enemy, they are really destroyed, but they believe in rebuilding. And according to this order, those institutions that are short of full-time students cannot be opened from 1 September. We are now trying to get some kind of delay so that we don't lose our teachers. In general, everything is fine in a thousand of our institutions,» said Vitalii Kim.

At the same time, Minister of Education and Science Oksen Lisovyi said that the Ministry plans to find compromise solutions to save teachers and schools, while facilitating the return of children to full-time education or providing quality online learning.

«We are taking two weeks to make certain decisions that will mitigate the situation for the frontline and border communities,» said Oksen Lisovyi.

He also stressed that the Ministry of Education and Science is ready to seek compromise solutions in order, on the one hand, not to lose teachers and close schools, and, on the other hand, to facilitate the return of children to full-time education. If this is not possible, schools should be provided with quality online learning.

Earlier it was reported that the Mykolaiv Regional Council plans to appeal to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine with a request to postpone for a year or two the order of the Ministry of Education, which obliges children displaced by the war to study full-time in schools at their place of actual residence from 1 September 2025.