The Polaris Programme "Supporting Multilevel Governance in Ukraine" has joined the alliance launched under the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine’s (MoES) national initiative “First Steps Forward”. This is the first large-scale, international initiative to prioritise early childhood education in Ukraine, mobilising partners for the comprehensive transformation of the sector and to boost investment.
Why is early childhood education so critical for Ukraine at this time?
Early childhood education and care foster child development and promote inclusion. It also strengthens hromadas by supporting the socialisation of children and helping families – including internally displaced persons and veterans. Crucially, access to quality preschool education gives parents more opportunities to participate in the labour market, contributing to Ukraine’s social and economic recovery during wartime.
"Education is one of the key priorities of the Polaris Programme, which is why we supported the Ministry of Education and Science’s ‘First Steps Forward’ initiative to transform early childhood education. We will continue to support strengthening the education sector of Ukraine, with a focus on secondary education and preschools. As a part of our work, we are currently finalising a report on the functioning and financing of preschool institutions. It is our hope that this research will provide an improved basis for evidence-based reforms of this education subsector, to ensure that children in Ukraine have access to quality and safe early education, and to further develop and strengthen the role of territorial gromadas as founders of preschools," Jan Herczyński, Polaris Education on National Level Team Leader.
Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukraine’s early childhood education system has suffered severe losses – hundreds of kindergartens have been damaged or destroyed, and access to safe, quality learning remains significantly limited. In response, MoES and its international partners have developed the Early Childhood Education Strategy within the First Steps Forward initiative. The strategy aims to expand inclusive access to preschool education, improve teaching practices and learning environments, and strengthen institutional and local governance capacity.
The alliance, presented at the Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC2025) in Rome in July 2025, brings together more than twenty international partners – including UNICEF, the World Bank, GPE, UNESCO, and the OECD – who will contribute through funding, technical assistance, and expertise. The World Bank has already announced an initial commitment of USD 30 million to support inclusive access to early childhood and preschool education (ECPE), enhance education quality, and build management capacity.
One of the alliance’s shared goals is to reach, by 2030, at least 45–50% enrolment for children under 3 and 96% for children aged 3–6 in quality early childhood education, in line with the EU’s Barcelona targets.
Polaris will contribute to the implementation of the Early Childhood Education Strategy by supporting multilevel governance, reviewing the financing of the sector, and providing analytical and expert support to the Government of Ukraine and territorial hromadas and their associations.
Please read more information on MoES’s website via the link.
Photo: MoES's website
