There are more than 100 underground schools in Ukraine, and another 113 are under construction
More than 100 underground schools have already been built and put into operation in Ukraine, and another 113 educational institutions are at various stages of construction. Most of the facilities currently under construction are scheduled to be completed by the start of the new school year to ensure that children can attend in-person classes in safe conditions.
This was reported by Minister of Education and Science Oksen Lisovyi in an interview with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
According to him, more than 60% of the schools currently under construction are expected to be ready by September 1.
“We are currently building 113 schools; they are at various stages of completion, and most of them—over 60%—will be ready by September 1,” Lisovyi said.
The minister noted that, in total, the state must ensure education in underground schools for about 100,000 children, primarily in frontline areas.
The cost of a single such facility, he said, ranges from 80 to 120 million hryvnias, depending, in particular, on its capacity.
“These are expensive and long-term projects. And we are currently working on this quite intensively within the limits of what the Ukrainian budget can afford today... The cost ranges from 80 to 120 million hryvnias for 500–1,000 children. These are expensive projects, but well, this is the norm for children’s lives,” the education minister noted.
Lysovyi added that underground schools are funded through state subsidies. This year, 5 billion hryvnias have been allocated for their construction; last year, 11 billion; and previously, about 3 billion. In total, he said, over 20 billion hryvnias have already been invested in underground schools.
As a reminder, the Cabinet of Ministers has allocated an additional 350 million hryvnias for the modernization of school cafeterias as part of a state program to develop food infrastructure in educational institutions.
Previously, the Cabinet of Ministers allocated 1.6 billion hryvnias for the purchase of 460 school buses. Thanks to the subsidy, communities will be able to purchase new vehicles or replace those destroyed as a result of the war.
In the Kharkiv region, six underground schools are under construction, with another 16 such projects in the planning stages.
