The first underground school was officially opened in Zaporizhzhia. It is a shelter that guarantees safety and is a modern educational space where children can learn.
The underground school can accommodate 500 students in one shift and 1000 in two shifts. The school is located at a depth of 7 meters, so it guarantees protection during shelling. There are 16 classrooms with interactive whiteboards and furniture suitable for children of different ages.
There are lifts and navigation in Braille for students with special educational needs. The school also has areas for recreation, active games, and sports equipment. Modern security systems were installed, including ventilation, emergency lighting, and fire alarms.
Construction lasted a record 6 months due to the extraordinary efficiency of the parties involved: the state, local authorities, and international partners.
- This is just the first step. Currently, 10 more such schools are being built in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, providing education for over 8,000 children. We continue to work actively to create safe conditions for full-time education - this remains a priority for the Ministry of Education and Science. The government has allocated UAH 500 million in subvention and an additional UAH 545 million as a subsidy to construct shelters in Zaporizhzhia region, - said Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine Oksen Lisovyi.
The construction was carried out according to a typical UNICEF project at the expense of a state subvention and co-financing from the local budget. The total budget amounted to UAH 113.7 million.
The project has been added to the DREAM ecosystem - https://bit.ly/3Bn6yoj
As part of the School Offline policy, the government has allocated UAH 7.5 billion to create shelters for schools in the frontline and russian regions. These shelters will allow 100,000 children to return to full-time education in safe conditions. Currently, 79 such facilities are being actively built or repaired. The main difference between this year's subvention distribution and last year's is the use of the DREAM ecosystem to ensure fast and transparent digital procedures and the selection of projects by the MOES commission.
Restoring access to full-time and safe education is a government priority. Opening an underground school in frontline Zaporizhzhia is an important step towards ensuring quality offline education even in the most difficult conditions.
