Back to School 2023-2024: Report on education for children displaced by the conflict in Ukraine at the start of the second school year, September 2023

The escalation of the conflict in February 2022 led to an unprecedented large-scale displacement of children and their families in Ukraine both in and abroad to countries in Europe. In June 2023 according to UNHCR, 6.3 million Ukrainian refugees were living across the globe and more than 5 million displaced within Ukraine. Coupled with the preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the conflict has resulted in a fourth year where serious learning deficits among kindergarten and primary aged children are evident2, in spite of the Ukrainian government’s efforts to deliver education online. Ukrainian refugees are welcomed in host countries, however viable solutions to absorbed Ukrainian students in school systems are proving complex and difficult. Consequently, at the start of the 2023-2024 academic year, many children in Ukraine and host countries are not part of formal school systems.

This paper asserts that humanitarian organizations will continue to be vital in ensuring millions of children receive educational and mental health support critical to their development. Learning in a school setting is vital to children’s mental health, positive social development and academic achievement, therefore education must be fully funded in the humanitarian response. Barriers to in-person learning must be addressed by Ukraine and host governments to shift the degree of reliance on online learning. Humanitarian learning hubs that integrate education, protection and mental health and psycho-social support for Ukrainian students and parents, demonstrate the necessity to adopt a wholistic approach education in the formal school system, to effectively meet the needs of displaced children.