ORGANIZATIONAL AND LEGAL MECHANISMS FOR TRANSFORMING THE EDUCATION SYSTEM OF UKRAINE IN THE CONTEXT OF ENSURING NATIONAL SECURITY

Abstract

The article argues that transforming Ukraine’s education system under prolonged wartime and hybrid threats should be treated as a component of national security, because education directly shapes human capital, social cohesion, community resilience and the reproduction of national identity. The study synthesizes contemporary views on organizational and legal mechanisms as a multi-level system of interlinked norms, institutions, procedures, resources and accountability instruments that enable coherent achievement of public goals. Drawing on the legal framework on education and national security, the National Security Strategy, the Concept of Safety of Educational Institutions, the implementation plan of the Safe Schools Declaration, the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ instruction regulating police units’ work to ensure a safe educational environment, and national monitoring evidence on learning organisation during wartime, the paper identifies the key organizational and legal mechanisms of transformation: strategic-planning, institutional, procedural, infrastructurefinancial, information-analytical, digital and competency-based. The findings show that transformation effectiveness depends not on the number of regulations, but on their coherence with implementation capacity, interagency coordination, measurable performance indicators and evidence-based decision-making. The article proposes strategic guidelines for improving manageability: regulatory systematization; mainstreaming security into managerial decisions; strengthening coordination between the education sector, civil protection and law enforcement; improving data governance and digital security; and developing managerial competencies as a prerequisite for implementing continuity-of-learning and protection policies. The practical contribution is an applied “map” of mechanisms that links strategic objectives with implementation procedures and accountability in a security-vulnerable environment.