According to the Ministry of Justice, there are 881,000 children aged 1-6 in Ukraine, Deputy Minister of Education and Science Anastasiya Konovalova told LB.ua in an interview. At the same time, just over 750,000 children receive preschool education.
‘So, in general, the percentage of coverage is not bad. On the other hand, with such figures, we should still have a queue for institutions. But if you go outside of Kyiv, kindergartens are already underfilled,’ says Anastasiya Konovalova.
The trend will continue in the future. According to forecasts, in 2027, there will be 570,000 children aged 1-6 in Ukraine. Although this figure has been declining for several years, we have never had such a catastrophe, explains the Deputy Minister of Education and Science.
‘That is, children born during the COVID-19 pandemic and the full-scale war are now going to kindergartens. And such persistent families gave birth during this period. And thank God we have them. But this demographic gap requires a lot of flexibility from the system so that we can maintain the service and the network. We didn't have this flexibility before, and this is exactly what the preschool education reform should add,’ she says.