“27 out of 30 will leave forever” – a school head about the emigration of high school students
5 November 2024 15:00
Ukraine is experiencing a new wave of mass migration of schoolchildren abroad. This trend is gaining alarming proportions and may have long-term consequences for the country’s future. Volodymyr Strashko, the head of a distance school and business coach, shared his thoughts on Facebook, according to "Komersant Ukrainian".
“Over the past couple of months, we have been seeing an ABNORMAL number of requests that begin with the words “…we have gone abroad and want to complete our studies remotely.” And the number of such applications is only growing. If earlier we saw the largest percentage of such requests from parents of boys in grades 10-11, because their parents tried to take them abroad before the age of 18 (there are a lot of them now), today we are talking about all children, regardless of age or gender. And this is very disturbing,”
– says the educator.
The situation has changed significantly compared to last year, says Strashko. He believes that the trend of children leaving is growing.
“In 2023, especially at the beginning, people believed that there would be a counteroffensive and the war would end. Many of our clients said 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 wishing to study remotely occurred only in late August and early September, when it became clear that the war would last for a long time,”
– says the head of the school.
Of particular concern is that families who left earlier are gradually abandoning Ukrainian education. That is, their parents no longer associate their children’s future with Ukraine.
“Children who left a year or two ago are no longer receiving Ukrainian education. At the very beginning, they studied in parallel, or, if the law allowed, exclusively with us. Then they stayed only in the Ukrainian component. Now they are refusing to do so altogether,”
– Strashko explains.
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According to the expert, the motivation of parents is simple:
“We have decided that we are staying here FOREVER, and we don’t need Ukrainian education.”
The most critical situation is among graduates. However, while parents used to take mostly boys (because they are not allowed to leave at the age of 18), now, according to the teacher, girls are also going abroad.
“Among 11th grade students, there are more and more children who will NOT write the NMT. They do not plan to enter Ukrainian universities. Not only boys, but also girls. In some classes, there are 90% of such children. Conditionally, 27 out of 30 will leave. Most likely forever. But this is not a story about parents sending them to the best universities for a great education. No. They go anywhere, to any university, as long as it is not in Ukraine,”
– emphasizes the educator.
These children, he argues, are not going for quality education, but are running away from Ukrainian prospects.
“It’s not about the quality of education today. No, it’s not. It’s about something else. It’s about realizing the prospects. About the choice of parents. It’s about trying not to be mobilized for a father or a boy in the future. We hear these phrases with our own ears,”
– summarizes Volodymyr Strashko.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian authorities are planning to ban children from speaking Russian in schools.
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