Language is not only a means of communication, it is also a cornerstone of national security. It is a symbol of identity and a unifying force for the Ukrainian people. Despite the importance of this issue, the pace of Ukrainization remains uneven, and recent data suggest some backsliding.
Let us examine Ukrainian language use among our schoolchildren, drawing on the annual reports of the State Service of Education Quality (SSEQ) on compliance with language legislation, as well as data from the Razumkov Center.
The SSEQ (State Service of Education Quality of Ukraine) is a central executive authority responsible for implementing education quality assurance policy in Ukraine. It oversees educational institutions and helps them improve the learning process. Among other things, the SSEQ monitors the functioning of the state language in educational institutions, examining students’ language identification, the language used in and outside the educational process, and proficiency in the state language.
The analysis draws on data from annual surveys of students in grades 8-11 covering all regions of Ukraine. In the 2021-2022 academic year, the sample included 16,384 students, 80% of whom lived in cities, while nearly 29% had internally displaced person status. In 2022-2023, the SSEQ surveyed 16,000 students, of whom 82% remained in their home communities, 12% had relocated within the country, and 6% were abroad. In 2023-2024, 7,031 students aged 14 and older were surveyed; data were collected using systematic sampling (every second student on the class list), and urban residents accounted for 79% of respondents. In 2024-2025, the sample included 5,727 students from 124 representatively selected educational institutions across the country (excluding the Autonomous Republic of Crimea), with 77% of respondents studying in cities or towns and 23% in rural areas. All surveys were conducted through online questionnaires. The parent sample comprised 35,977 respondents in 2021-2022, 18,788 in 2023-2024, and 25,695 in 2024-2025. The survey covered parents of students at all levels of general secondary education (from primary to upper secondary) across all regions of Ukraine, including a substantial share of internally displaced persons.
The monitoring also involved 5,867 teachers in 2021-2022, 3,726 in 2022-2023, 4,000 in 2023-2024, and 4,294 in 2024-2025. About 60% of respondents had more than 20 years of professional experience, and most (74-77%) worked in urban educational institutions.
Educational institutions are spaces where identity is shaped and values take root in children. Indicators of Ukrainian language use during the educational process, based on parent responses, point to compliance with language legislation in schools (Figure 1) and a steady positive trend: the share of Ukrainian used in schooling rose from 87% in the 2021/22 academic year to 94% in 2024/25.
Figure 1. Ukrainian and Russian language use in everyday life and in the educational process (% of respondents)
Outside educational institutions, the situation is less optimistic. As of the 2021/22 academic year, 63% of surveyed students used Ukrainian predominantly or exclusively. After the start of the full-scale invasion, this figure rose to 71% in 2022/23, returned to 63% the following school year (2023/24), and then increased again to 70% in 2024/25. However, the share of exclusively Ukrainian-speaking children is lower: between 37% and 44% across all three years of the study. Thus, about 30% of children switch between Ukrainian and Russian depending on circumstances.
Indicators of Russian language use in private communication move in mirror fashion. This share was lowest in 2022/23 – 9%, down from 17% before the war. The following school year it returned to 17%, but in 2024/25 it declined somewhat, to 14%.
A certain “rollback” is also evident in language self-identification. While 91% of students considered Ukrainian their native language in 2022/23, this figure dropped to 74% the following year and partially recovered to 78% in 2024/25 (Figure 2). At the same time, the share of children who consider Ukrainian their native language remains higher than the share who use it in everyday life. This indicates potential for expanding the use of Ukrainian. Figure 2 also shows that the share of adults who communicate exclusively in Ukrainian is significantly higher than the share of children. However, this result may reflect the fact that adults sought to answer “correctly” during the survey – that is, in line with social expectations.
Figure 2. Language identification, self-assessed proficiency, and exclusive use of Ukrainian by school students (% of respondents)
Source: SSEQ reports for the 2022/23, 2023/24, and 2024/25 academic years; adult data from the Razumkov Center’s 2024 Report on the Identity of Ukrainian Citizens
Students’ self-assessment of their Ukrainian language proficiency has increased somewhat: the share reporting fluent command rose from 68% in 2022/23 to a stable 73% over the following two years (Figure 2). Despite this, both teachers (15% of those surveyed in 2023/24) and students themselves (13.5% in 2023/24) cited insufficient proficiency as a barrier to a full transition to the state language (Figure 3).
However, in the view of parents and teachers, more significant obstacles are Russian-language content and the habit of speaking Russian outside school (with family or friends). Students rank the second of these factors as the most important. Student responses indicate that as long as parents communicate with their children in Russian (thus forming a “habit” that children, in turn, reproduce among their peers), the language of the aggressor will, unfortunately, continue to occupy a prominent place in the younger generation’s information space.
Figure 3. Factors hindering school students’ use of Ukrainian, according to different respondent groups (%)
Source: SSEQ reports — 2024/25 for parents, 2023/24 for school students, 2022/23 for teachers.
Note: respondents could select multiple answers.
The family is an important (but not the only) factor shaping a child’s language environment. Modern children spend a substantial amount of time online and quite often consume Russian-language content (Figure 4), while the share of students consuming exclusively Ukrainian-language content has declined in recent years. At the same time, fewer than 10% consume exclusively Russian-language content, and about 40% consume both Ukrainian and Russian. This is twice as high as in the 2022/23 academic year, indicating a weakening of the “rally around the flag” effect and growing tolerance toward Russian. Platform algorithms and the large volume of Russian-language content draw school students back into old language habits and help create a Russian-language environment for them.
Figure 4. What languages’ content do school students consume?
Thus, there is a substantial gap between high levels of language identification and formal proficiency in Ukrainian and much lower levels of its exclusive use in everyday life. The main reasons for this gap are the Russian-speaking environment (especially within families)and the significant volume of Russian-language online content.
Photo: depositphotos.com/ua
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