Mriia—Ukraine’s national digital education ecosystem—currently serves as the core public digital infrastructure for schools, supporting daily operations, communication with parents, and allowing for the continuity of learning for children nationwide.

Why Ukraine Needed a Unified Digital Education Ecosystem

Many education systems continue to rely on fragmented digital tools that make it difficult to coordinate teaching, communicate with families and maintain continuity during disruption.

For years, Ukrainian schools relied on paper documentation, disconnected digital tools, and messenger groups to manage grades, attendance, schedules, and homework. School leaders lacked a unified view of operations, while students and parents received inconsistent information depending on the tools used by individual schools or teachers. 

The full-scale war made this fragmentation a matter of continuity, not convenience. Students and teachers were displaced across Ukraine and abroad. As some schools shifted to remote or hybrid formats, having stable communication between educational institutions and families became critical. In these conditions, the challenge was not simply the lack of digital tools, but the absence of a unified, trusted, state-supported digital interface to help schools maintain continuity of learning amid disruption.

The challenge also extended beyond administrative efficiency. For Ukraine, a resilient education system is part of long-term national capacity. It supports the development of skilled, responsible citizens who can contribute to recovery, innovation, economic development, and the country’s future competitiveness.

One Digital Ecosystem for the Entire Learning Journey

Mriia was developed and jointly implemented by Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation and the Ministry of Education and Science as a national response to this fragmentation. Its long-term vision extends beyond any single stage of education: The ecosystem is designed to connect preschool, school, higher education, professional development and lifelong learning, rather than leaving each level dependent on separate systems, tools and records.

Every school has free access to one state-backed platform through Mriia. Its web portal gives administrators and teachers a comprehensive workspace for planning, documentation, timetabling, and analytics, while mobile applications provide teachers, students and parents with daily access to grades, schedules, updates, and communication with the school.

Access is based on secure, state-backed digital identification rather than a standard username-and-password model. Once users verify their identity, the ecosystem checks their role through AIKOM, the automated information complex for educational management in Ukraine. Each person then receives access only to the profile, functions, and information relevant to their role, whether as a teacher, a student or a parent.

Built around the needs of educators, Mriia’s AI-powered tools reduce routine workload without replacing teachers’ expertise and judgement. A test generator, piloted in 160 schools, has already produced more than 60,000 curriculum-aligned tasks in just a few clicks, freeing up teachers’ time for direct work with students. A daily activity plan generator is also being piloted to support preschool educators with day-to-day planning. A personalised content library and an educational knowledge graph currently under development aim to support more coherent learning pathways for each student.

Beyond school administration, the ecosystem aims to inspire lifelong learning and help children better understand themselves and the world they live in. Students can explore additional learning materials, discover topics ranging from future careers to science and technology, and find clubs and extracurricular activities based on their interests and location. Parents can access practical guidance on supporting their children, while educators can use the content for professional development, lesson preparation, and classroom teaching. Recommendations are shaped by users’ interests, previously viewed materials, and saved topics.

The platform is also evolving toward a more personalised understanding of each child’s learning journey. Changes in academic performance are more visible, while parents have direct access to grades and teacher feedback. As a result, schools and families gain a clearer understanding of each learnerʼs progress, strengths, interests, and needs. Looking ahead, AI-powered recommendations and an educational knowledge graph connecting topics, skills, materials, activities, and achievements could enable more coherent learning pathways tailored to each learner.

Today, the ecosystem encompasses both school and extracurricular education, with its scope continuing to expand. As of now, Mriia.Preschool has been piloted in 40 preschool institutions across seven regions — bringing digital tools for planning, attendance tracking, family communication, and everyday learning activities to the earliest stage of a child’s education.

Governance and Implementation 

Implementation is integrated into the product, rather than handled as a separate rollout. For schools, moving to a new digital ecosystem involves more than adopting a new tool. It requires changes to routines, data management, staff training, and everyday workflows. This is why the implementation model combines technical setup with guidance and continuous support during the transition.

Each school goes through a structured implementation cycle with the Mriia team. The process usually begins with an introductory call, followed by checking and updating school data, training teachers, and supporting student and parent onboarding. On average, the process takes about three weeks, though some schools complete it faster.

Training is an important part of the implementation model. Teachers can complete an interactive online course in a simulation format, allowing them to safely test Mriia’s functions and experiment with different actions. This helps reduce uncertainty around new tools and speeds up adaptation.

Another challenge is the organisational resistance that often accompanies digital transformation. Any new process requires time and trust, especially when it changes established school routines. For this reason, support does not end immediately after technical setup. The Mriia team continues to accompany each school until it completes a full operational cycle within the ecosystem, including the first semester or end-of-year grading cycle. This ensures that Mriia is not only applied to isolated tasks, but can become part of the school’s everyday work.

After implementation, users can contact the support team through chatbots, email, or phone. In a dedicated community on Facebook, educators using Mriia share updates, collect feedback, invite users to closed events, and build a professional community around the ecosystem.

Reach, Adoption and Support for Educational Continuity

Since its launch, Mriia, has been adopted by nearly 4,700 schools and is used by over 1 million students, parents, and educators, across different  school sizes, locations, and operating formats. This broad reach is also reflected in its sustained use: In one academic year, schools recorded 240 million grades, 22 million homework assignments, 32.5 million lesson topics, and 58.5 million attendance entries.

Together, these figures demonstrate the resilience of the ecosystem by providing schools across the country with a common, state-backed digital system that supports continuity of learning during periods of disruption.

Usage data indicates sustained adoption. In one academic year, schools recorded 240 million grades, 22 million homework assignments, 32.5 million lesson topics, and 58.5 million attendance entries.

At the same time, resistance to changing established school routines remains a significant challenge. The training and post-launch support model was developed because technical rollout alone does not ensure adoption.

Outcomes and Transferable Lessons

As Mriia continues to evolve, the team remains open to sharing practical experience with governments, education systems and partners, including both what has worked and what has not. This includes lessons around the governance of national digital education infrastructure, from secure access and integration with state information systems to clearly defined responsibilities for personal data processing and protection. Sharing this experience can contribute to knowledge exchange and help inform digital education solutions adapted to different national contexts. 

Start with the Problem, Not the Platform

The underlying issue was not a lack of technology, but the fragmentation of existing tools. Schools faced duplicate data entry across paper records and disconnected digital tools, alongside the absence of a consistent communication channel with parents. Mriia's core design choices—one login, one student record, a mobile app built for parents—were shaped directly by these needs.

Implementation Is Part of the Product, Not an Afterthought

A three-week onboarding cycle, simulation-based training, and support through a full grading cycle help schools integrate the ecosystem into their everyday work rather than simply introducing a new digital tool. The experience shows that implementation is an integral part of successfully introducing the technology.

Piloting and User Research Are Critical

Mriia’s development is based on feedback from educators, parents, and children, including interviews, behaviour analysis, and hypothesis testing in real-world use. The team does not implement every suggestion directly; instead, it analyses patterns to systematically inform product decisions.

Taken together, these lessons show that successful digital transformation in education depends not only on what is built, but also on how it is introduced, supported, and continuously improved with users.