Twenty municipalities of the Luhansk oblast received educational subventions and continue to provide educational services, despite the war and the temporary occupation of part of the region. This became possible thanks to the relocation of local self-government to safer regions of the country and the opportunities provided by the decentralisation of power.

In January 2023, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine published official data on the allocation of educational subventions for each municipality of the state. 20 municipalities of the Luhansk oblast received the specified funding to provide educational services to their residents.

“As for the information that 20 out of 26 municipalities received subventions, it is not the numbers that matter but the fact that in an almost completely occupied oblast, the majority of local self-government bodies relocated and were able to resume the education process of their children and preserve jobs for their teachers,” said Ihor Ahibalov, Head of the Regional Office of U-LEAD with Europe in the Luhansk oblast.

Ahibalov points out the indicators of the Sievierodonetsk district. The percentage of children receiving education services is 60-80% compared to the pre-war rate:

“Here is another example. The Shulhynka municipality of the Starobilsk district and the Nizhnia Duvanka municipality of the Swativ district, whose territories were occupied in the first three days of the war, were able to provide education services to 95% and 98% of schoolchildren, respectively. The official data on the distribution of the educational subvention may seem like some nondescript yearly operational information. But not for the Luhansk oblast. For us, it’s about resilience.”

According to Ihor Ahibalov, such indicators clearly show the advantage of decentralisation, because, despite the war and temporary occupation, municipalities continue to work and provide services — including education — to their population.

“We are undoubtedly grateful to the colleagues and friends in host regions for making it easy for a child from the Luhansk oblast to enrol to a school in Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil or anywhere where the family has found shelter. However, when we hear things like, ‘We are now in Vinnytsia, but we study at our Sievierodonetsk school’ and analyse the indicators of subvention allocation, data on the number of students in municipalities, this showcases both the advantages of local self-government reform and the stability of the municipalities themselves and their readiness to return to the de-occupied territories at the moment’s notice,” said Ihor Ahibalov.