UKRAINE, KHARKIV, Sep 11 — From Aug 30 to Sep 2, Russian shelling damaged 18 educational facilities, and the city is still repairing them despite “constant shelling,” said Kharkiv mayor Ihor Terekhov at the session of the Regional Office of International Cooperation. 

In total, during the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russians destroyed or damaged more than 3,000 educational institutions of various types in the country. In Kharkiv Oblast, Russia damaged or destroyed over 600 of them. 

Since the beginning of the all-out war in February 2022, 69% of schools, 57% of kindergartens, 46% of out-of-school educational facilities, and 44% of buildings of educational management organizations have been completely or partially destroyed in Kharkiv, Terekhov said. 

“Four schools are destroyed to such a degree that it’ll be impossible to rebuild them. They need to be demolished, and the new ones will need to be built.” Terekhov says. 

As of today, offline school learning was organized for about 6,680 students in Kharkiv City, according to the Department of Education and Science in Kharkiv Oblast representative’s commentary to GM.

Offline education is necessary, Terekhov believes, but “to [organize it] in usual schools is impossible because of the constant shelling.” 

According to the Department of Education and Science, 50 educational facilities in Kharkiv currently provide offline education in a hybrid format (that combines offline and online learning).

The Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine’s order #1112 outlines the conditions for returning as many children as possible to offline education and improving the quality of remote learning for 2024-2025. 

Those conditions include shelters in the schools or in close proximity to shelters (500m) and the material and technical support required for remote education.

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