Online learning mode in frontline and occupied schools is a fiction This was reported to OstroV by teachers and students working in remote online format from the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Luhansk oblasts.
All of them asked not only to withhold their names but also the cities where their schools are located. A math teacher from a school in the temporarily occupied Luhansk oblast, speaking anonymously, said that after the occupying forces entered her hometown, teachers who agreed to work remotely were given electronic journals that completely mirrored the pre-war paper versions. According to these records, all students, despite the occupation, remained loyal to their Ukrainian school and switched to online learning. The teachers received a schedule according to which they were supposed to conduct online classes.
However, in reality, only a handful of students from the journal’s list actually attend classes, but per school administration instructions, teachers are not allowed to record actual attendance—the electronic journal must reflect an almost full attendance rate, as if classes were held in person.
"Out of twenty registered students, at best, only five or six show up", - confirmed history teacher Faina Heorhiivna from a frontline city in the Donetsk oblast. The issue of grading chronic absentees is handled in a similar manner. "Before the end of the term, the vice principal sends instructions on what grades to assign and to whom", - she said.
When asked how it's possible to give passing grades to students who don't attend, the vice principal responded that teachers need to be understanding of the children's situation. If that argument doesn’t convince some principled educators, a much stronger one is used: "You do want to keep receiving your salary, don’t you?"
OstroV also spoke with a student from a distance-learning school. A high school senior from the Zaporizhzhia oblast currently lives with his parents in Dnipro. According to an order from Ukraine's Ministry of Education and Science, which regulates school education during martial law, he is not required to attend school in the host community and can continue studying remotely at his original school. This arrangement suits Andrii just fine. "Mom said she’ll take me to Poland after graduation, so I don’t waste time on online lessons (they’ll give me my diploma anyway), and instead, I’m taking Polish language courses".
Residents of a settlement in the occupied Luhansk oblast said their daughter still attends her school, which now follows russian curricula. They were unaware that she is still officially listed as a student in a Ukrainian school and is even receiving online grades.
As Sievierodonetsk City Military Administration head Oleksii Kharchenko told OstroV (the city has been occupied since 2022), the community’s budget for eight months of 2025 includes 106 million UAH in expenditures. In the budget of frontline Pokrovsk in the Donetsk oblast, nearly 147 million UAH has been allocated for education in 2025, despite the absence of a single functioning in-person school. The CMA press service explained to OstroV that these funds go toward paying teachers who continue to educate children remotely.