Opinion
Not only boys, but also girls do not plan to receive higher education in Ukraine. The motivation of their parents is simple – to go anywhere but here
20:00
(Not) educational losses
People are leaving in droves again. Today it is quite difficult to find current government statistics on this issue, but I have my own. The school is a kind of litmus test for society, and I see trends through the prism of customer behavior.
Like other distance schools, we have had a significant increase in demand in 2022. In 2023, especially at the beginning, people believed that there would be a counteroffensive and the war would end. Many clients reported that they would return to Ukraine, and those who did not leave postponed the decision to study until the last minute. A sharp rise in those wanting to study remotely only happened at the end of August – beginning of September, when it became clear that the war would still be going on for a long time.
Why am I writing this? Over the past couple of months, we have been seeing an ABNORMAL number of requests that begin with the words “…we have left (are going) abroad and want to complete our studies remotely.” And the number of such requests is only growing. If earlier we saw the largest percentage of such requests from parents of children in grades 10-11, because the parents tried to take them out before they were 18 years old (there are a lot of them now), today we are talking about all children, regardless of age and gender. And this is very worrying. It feels like the travel trend has begun with renewed vigor.
This trend continues. Children who left a year or two ago stop receiving Ukrainian education. At the very beginning, they studied in parallel or, if the law allowed, exclusively with us. Then they remained only with the Ukrainian component. Now they refuse completely. The motivation is very simple: “We decided that we will stay here FOREVER. And we don’t need Ukrainian education.”
But that’s not all. Among 11th grade students there are more and more children who WILL NOT WRITE NMT (National Multi-Subject Test – a form of conducting an entrance test for a bachelor’s degree for higher education in Ukraine. – Ord.). They do not plan to enter Ukrainian universities. Not only guys, but also girls. In some classes there are 90% of such children. Conventionally, 27 out of 30 will leave. Most likely forever. But this is not the story that their parents send them to the best universities for a good education. No. They join anywhere, in some universities, the main thing is not in Ukraine.
These are my own demographic statistics. While we are talking about educational losses and the quality of education, completely different losses occur. And if this trend gains momentum, then there will simply be no one to teach. And there are no simple solutions here. After all, studying in another country is not the quality of education today. No. This is about something else. About awareness of prospects. About the choice of parents. About trying to avoid mobilization for my father and boyfriend in the future. We hear these phrases with our own ears. In the end, it’s about the mood in society. We know that motivation doesn’t even depend on what we have today. And because of what tomorrow will bring us.
There will be no conclusions. Let everyone make their own.
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