US$9 billion needed for restoration: Ministry of Education and Science reveals number of educational institutions destroyed by Russia
DIANA KRECHETOVA, UKRAINSKA PRAVDA.ZHYTTIA — MONDAY, 19 SEPTEMBER 2022
Russian occupying forces have damaged 2,532 Ukrainian educational institutions since the beginning of the full-scale war; 287 of them were destroyed.
Source: Serhii Shkarlet, Minister of Education and Science, on air during the national joint 24/7 newscast on 19 September.
Shkarlet says that according to the latest estimates, Ukraine needs US$9.2 billion to restore schools, universities and kindergartens. At the same time, Ukraine urgently needs US$2.8 billion.
"However, we need not only to restore destroyed institutions, but also to create safe conditions in schools that are working," the Minister of Education and Science emphasises.
These include the cost of heating, roof repairs, provision of necessary furniture, teaching materials, etc.
Lysychansk Gymnasium that was destroyed by the occupiers. Photo: Serhii Haidai, Head of the Luhansk Oblast Military Administration
Shkarlet summarised that, as a result of Russian armed aggression, educational institutions suffered the most in the following areas:
Kharkiv Oblast,
Donetsk Oblast,
Luhansk Oblast,
Zaporizhzhia Oblast,
Mykolaiv Oblast,
Kherson Oblast.
The Minister of Education and Science added that the draft of Ukraine’s state budget for 2023 provided expenditures on new subventions:
- ensuring safe conditions in general secondary education institutions - UAH 1.5 billion [approximately US$40,000];
- purchase of school buses - UAH 1 billion [approximately US$27,000].
The Lysychansk Gymnasium [High School] in Luhansk Oblast, which was built 100 years ago by the Belgians, had burned out due to attack by the occupiers.
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