Ukrainian schoolchildren to start September 1 with old textbooks due to Russian strikes on warehouses and printing facilities

Some Ukrainian schoolchildren will begin the school year without new textbooks — Russian strikes destroyed more than one million copies, damaging warehouses and printing capacity.

This was stated by Education Minister Andriy Butenko in a comment to the outlet Telegraf.

According to the minister, the degree to which print runs have been restored varies significantly depending on the grade level and publisher.

“Textbooks are being printed, and we are trying to quickly restore the damaged ones. The degree of restoration varies across different categories. Some textbooks, as of Friday, are up to 45% restored — some print runs, because we have textbooks for fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and ninth grades by different authors,” said Andriy Butenko.

Butenko clarified that some of the destroyed textbooks had been scheduled to replace older editions during September, so there will be no complete absence of books for schoolchildren — children will simply use copies from previous years. Print runs that were due to arrive in October will reach schools by the end of October or early November.

“On September 1, children will have access to information: some with a physical textbook, some with a digital textbook. That is, every child will have access to a textbook in physical, PDF, or electronic format,” the head of the Ministry of Education noted.

When distributing physical copies, priority will be given to communities with the poorest internet coverage, so that children without stable access to the internet receive printed books.

The minister also commented on the situation regarding Ukrainian children abroad. According to him, assessing the scale of older schoolchildren leaving Ukraine is difficult due to a lack of precise statistics: not all children register with consulates or embassies, some left before the full-scale war or were born abroad of Ukrainian origin.

Ukrainian children abroad receive the Ukrainian studies component — language, literature, history, and geography — outside of their regular foreign school hours. According to Butenko, combining a foreign education with the Ukrainian component allows a child to obtain a Ukrainian educational certificate and, upon returning, to continue schooling or enroll in a Ukrainian university.