Learning formats during armed conflict: a large-scale survey of educational continuity in Ukraine

This study documents how school learning formats varied across Ukraine’s conflict gradient during active war, using a mixed-methods cross-sectional survey with a dominant quantitative strand and a supplementary qualitative strand. Responses from 5224 parents of general secondary students (grades 1–11), collected in October 2024, show that proximity to active combat is strongly associated with the organised use of distance learning rather than the cessation of schooling. In frontline regions 93.2% of families reported distance learning, compared with predominantly in-person instruction in rear regions (62.5%) and mixed formats in near-front regions (70.2%). The association between conflict zone and learning format is very large ( χ 2 ( 4 ) = 4741.29 , p < . 001 , Cramér’s V = 0.67 ). In a multinomial logistic regression (pseudo- R 2 = 0.49 ) adjusting for settlement type, school type, and ownership, distance learning was about 4400 times more likely, relative to in-person instruction, in frontline than in rear regions (adjusted RRR = 4,446 , 95% CI [ 1,772 , 11,152 ] ); descriptively it was roughly 17 times as prevalent. Parent-reported satisfaction with school technical support varied only weakly across zones ( V = 0.07 ), a pattern we read cautiously because the online sampling frame under-represents the least-connected families. Open-text responses surfaced crisis-specific priorities: shelter adequacy, connectivity, device access, teacher preparation, and psychological support. Rather than overturning existing crisis-education scholarship, these findings extend it with population-scale evidence and are consistent with the capability approach: families sustained educational capability by shifting modality when in-person instruction became impractical. The results support zone-differentiated, crisis-responsive education policy.