An underground school will be built in Kherson: experts are developing project documentation

A view of the underground school in Kharkiv. Photo: twitter.com/mayorterekhov

An underground school for 500 students will be built in Kherson. Project and estimate documentation is currently being developed.

This was reported to NikVesti by the Kherson City Military Administration.

It should be noted that on April 8, the head of the Kherson MBA, Roman Mrochko, visited Kharkiv to learn about the experience of building underground educational institutions.

«With the mayor of Kharkiv, Igor Terekhov, we discussed a number of problems common to the front-line territories and how our communities can be useful to each other. Following the example of Kharkiv residents, we plan to build an underground school. They were able to do it in 8 months, and now the underground facility is equipped with everything necessary to establish a full-fledged educational process in two shifts,» said Roman Mrochko.

Kharkiv underground school. Photo: Kharkiv City Council

Kharkiv underground school. Photo: Kharkiv City Council

In response to an information request by NikVesti, the city's military administration noted that Kherson currently lacks storage facilities that can be used in the educational process for a significant number of students. Therefore, in order to receive up to 500 students together, the city plans to build an underground school.

«Currently, work is underway to develop the design and estimate documentation of the planned construction, according to which the required amount of financing and the project implementation period will be determined. As of April, the location of the specified institution is not disclosed for security reasons. The arrangement of the underground educational institution in Kherson is planned in accordance with the current State Building Regulations, recommendations of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine,» added the Ministry of Education.

It should be noted that underground schools are also proposed to be built in Mykolaiv. Deputy Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine Mykhailo Vynnytskyi noted that educational institutions in front-line cities, in particular Mykolaiv, need to be transferred to offline education in order not to lose students.

How do children study in frontline cities?

As you know, a similar project for the construction of an underground school was implemented in Kharkiv. The building is built according to the highest safety standards, has 20 classrooms and is designed to accommodate 900 students in two shifts. In general, distance, offline and mixed forms of education operate in the city.

At the end of March, for the first time since the beginning of the full-scale war, 24 schools in Zaporizhzhia returned to a mixed education format. Schools in Dnipro also operate in a mixed format.

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And in Odesa, in 2024, almost all educational institutions will work full-time.

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.

Currently, shelters have been installed in 37 educational institutions out of 142 schools and kindergartens in Mykolaiv. At the end of December 2023, the commission recommended the opening of seven more educational institutions with shelters.

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

We will remind, this year the outflow of students was recorded in the schools of Mykolaiv. Compared to the last academic year , the number of schoolchildren decreased by 3,300. Vitalii Kim, the head of Mykolaiv RMA, explained that the city's schools work online because they are still targets for the Russian army. Vitalii Kim also explained that the decision on the offline operation of the city's schools will be made by the Office of the President and the Ministry of Education.

Where in Mykolaiv Oblast is there offline 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 study 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.

This publication is supported by the Fund «Partnership for the Sustainability of Ukraine», which is funded by the governments of Great Britain, Canada, the Netherlands, the United States of America, Finland, Switzerland and Sweden. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of online media NikVesti and does not necessarily reflect the position of the Fund and/or its financial partners.