Almost twice as many: 135 schools will work offline in Mykolaiv region this year

The holiday of the First Bell in one of the schools of Mykolaiv, archival photo

In 2024, the number of schools that will work offline in the Mykolaiv region will increase to 135.

As Alla Velikhovska, director of the Department of Education and Science, reported in a comment to NikVesti, this is 63 more institutions than in the previous year.

As you know, in general, the Ministry of Education of Ukraine offers three formats of education, according to the article by NikVesti «The second attempt. Will it be possible to open Mykolaiv schools offline this year?». The first — educational institutions that work fully in full-time (some with a variable format of education, — note), the second — institutions that will have a mixed form, and the third format — educational institutions, where there will be exclusively distance learning.

According to Alla Velikhovska, before the start of the full-scale invasion, there were 430 educational institutions in the region. This year, it is planned to open 135 schools for offline learning.

In addition, the number of schools that will work in a mixed form will increase from 124 to 194. At the same time, the number of institutions providing only distance learning will decrease from 234 to 91.

As for the personnel situation, 65% of teachers who went abroad have already returned and are working within the region.

«The current problem is to restore education in the de-occupied territories, where many educational institutions were destroyed. The Department of Education actively helps and promotes the restoration of the educational process in these areas so that children have the opportunity to get an education,» Alla Velikhovska said.

As you know, more than half of Mykolaiv schoolchildren plan to study offline as early as September 2024 — that's more than 22,000 children.

What about children's education in Mykolaiv?

Mykolaiv schoolchildren have been studying online since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation. Although the government, with the help of donors and the state, is actively setting up shelters in educational institutions, which sometimes causes indignation among the townspeople.

The refusal of children to go to school is a guarantee of their personal safety, because Mykolaiv is still in the zone of possible ballistic damage from the Russian military, says Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych. At the same time, he emphasizes the importance of preparing shelters and resuming education in schools when the Armed Forces move the front line.

Earlier, the head of Mykolaiv RMA Vitalii Kim explained why schools in Mykolaiv still work online: educational institutions are targets for the Russian army, since at the beginning of a full-scale war, they usually housed military personnel.

It is worth noting that earlier in response to the information request of NikVesti regarding the criteria that educational institutions of Mykolaiv must meet in order to resume full-time work in the 2023-2024 academic year, the city's education department reported: schools will work in accordance with the recommendations of the State Emergency Service and the Sanitary Regulations approved by the Ministry Health Care. The first is the availability of shelter, and the second is drinking water at school.

In the next few years, the authorities plan to equip 54 shelters in kindergartens, schools and lyceums in Mykolaiv.

In general, the outflow of students was recorded in Mykolaiv schools this year. Compared to the last academic year, the number of students decreased by 3,300.

Lithuania plans to build a shelter school in the Mykolaiv region by the end of 2024. Similar underground institutions should appear in 5 more regions of Ukraine.

As of February 2024, shelters were installed in 31% of schools in Mykolaiv. There are 21 institutions of general secondary education: 10 lyceums and 11 gymnasiums.

Where in Mykolaiv Oblast is there a full-time education?

57 educational institutions were allowed to work offline in the Mykolaiv region. Most of them are schools of Voznesensk and Pervomaisk districts. In addition, 94 schools work mixed, that is, children learn offline in a certain order, for example, one week after another. Another 277 educational institutions work online.

It was also possible to organize an offline educational process in the front-line Ochakiv, which is still in the zone of damage by the enemy's anti-aircraft missile system. There is a mixed form of education.

According to the monitoring of the Department of Education of the Mykolaiv City Council, 65% of schoolchildren want to study full-time.