Schools that opened their doors, and universities that made room

A school year does not pause because a country is invaded. That simple fact drove a great deal of what happened in March 2022.

Temporary protection gave Ukrainian children an immediate right to education. Schools in Poland, Germany, Czechia, Romania, Slovakia, Italy and elsewhere enrolled them mid-term — hundreds of thousands of children, arriving without records, often without the language. Teachers improvised. The European Commission issued guidance and made funding available for integration.

The other half: keeping the Ukrainian curriculum alive

Many families wanted their children to stay in the Ukrainian system, and Ukraine kept it running online — a capability built, ironically, during the pandemic. A child in Kraków could follow a Ukrainian curriculum in the afternoon and a Polish one in the morning.

Universities and research institutes opened positions for displaced students and academics. The Science for Ukraine volunteer initiative catalogued the offers. Erasmus+ rules were made flexible. As someone who returned to a classroom in Kyiv myself, I read all of this with particular attention: education interrupted is very hard to resume, and a great many people worked to make sure it was not interrupted.