The Effects of War on the Reproduction of Educational Inequality in Ukraine

Education is an integral part of both the institutional structure of society and the everyday life of people with its constantly reproduced educational inequality. Our main research questions concern the channels of the war effect on educational inequality, and how the depth of inequality among schoolchildren in terms of educational attainment has changed since the war. With the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war, the educational infrastructure has suffered almost the greatest destruction since the Second World War. A large number of families have been forced to move internally or externally. Summarizing the results of research in various countries that have experienced short or long-term periods of international or civil wars, we identify the main direct and indirect channels of the war impact on educational inequality including the destruction of educational infrastructure; lack of teachers due to internal and external displacement or recruitment into the army; displacement of a large number of adults and children; reduction of state expenditures on education; the growth of poverty; deterioration of children physical and mental health, stress, trauma, feeling of insecurity.

A full-scale war in Ukraine is potentially characterized by all channels of influence on educational inequality. We can verify the first war effects on education inequality based on PISA-2018 and PISA-2022 data in Ukraine, regional data on the number of damaged educational institutions, housing, the duration of shelling and air raids, the number of shelters, the number of internally displaced persons, etc. Preliminary results indicate significant educational losses among school students, ranging from half to almost two years of schooling, uneven distribution of the effects of the war among schoolchildren of different social backgrounds, places of residence, types of educational institutions, etc.