Shortly after the Russian invasion began, Andriy Bovan, a physics teacher, joined the thousands of other Ukrainians enrolling in the national army to help defend his country. In between fighting, Bovan puts down his gun, opens his laptop and runs online science classes for his students.
Meanwhile, Olena, a university professor, hides underground in Kharkiv. As shells fall above the ground, she delivers lessons to the children she shares the bomb shelter with.
In the midst of conflict, education continues.
“They had two years of covid and after that, war,” said Anna Sydoruk, chief operating officer at education organisation Osvitoria, of the approximately 5.7 million school-age children in Ukraine impacted by the conflict.
During the pandemic, Osvitoria launched Ukrainian School Online, a digital learning platform based on the national curriculum for students in grades 5-11. It provided video lessons, online tests and revision materials.
Since the beginning of the war, over 500,000 Ukrainian children from 122 countries have accessed the platform.
At the beginning of June, Ukraine’s education cluster group reported that 1,777 schools and other educational facilities had been damaged by war, while 194 had been destroyed altogether. 164,000 students are internally displaced.
Students who are due to graduate from high school this year can use the platform to prepare for their final exams – although these will look somewhat different this year.
In July, they are expected to take a simplified online exam composed of maths and Ukrainian language and history questions.
More information:
https://thepienews.com/analysis/k12-ukrainian-children-education/