Back To School: A Glimpse Into The Lives Of Children Across RFE/RL's Region
From bustling cities to war-torn countries, children across RFE/RL's regions are returning to the classroom for their first day of the new school year.

1
Moldovan children in traditional dress wait to enter the Tara Shevchenko school in Chisinau.
Children across RFE/RL's region are welcoming the start of another year of learning.
Children across RFE/RL's region are welcoming the start of another year of learning.

2
Kyrgyz first-graders sit attentively as class begins in Bishkek. An estimated 150,000 children entered the first grade this year in Kyrgyzstan.

3
Ukrainian children -- many wearing the traditional "vyshyvanka" embroidered shirts -- celebrate their first day of school in Zaporizhzhya on September 1.

4
Children watch as people waving Russian flags welcome them to the start of the new school year at a lyceum in Ukraine's Russian-occupied Donetsk on September 2.

5
Students with green balloons wait patiently for the start of class in a school in the Armenian village of Jrap.

6
A little girl rubs her tired eyes during the first day at the lyceum named after Moldovan writer Gheorghe Asachi in Chisinau.

7
Children watch as traditional songs and dances are performed, welcoming them to the new school year in Bishkek.

8
Following the first day of school in Budapest, students and family members took part in a demonstration after the head of a leading public high school was dismissed for disagreeing with a new government policy about banning students from using mobile phones in schools.

9
Despite the Taliban's nationwide ban on teenage girls attending school past the sixth grade, some are resorting to private education while others, such as these students, attend an open-air school in Firozkoh in Afghanistan's Ghor Province.