March 24, 2022, marks exactly one month since Russia launched a full-scale war against Ukraine. Russia's brutal aggression is aimed primarily at destroying the Ukrainian people as a free and democratic nation, dictating pseudo-principles of the Russian world. In these tragic circumstances, all structural elements of society, among which the leading place has the educational system, were forced to adapt to the conditions of martial law, and then to deal promptly with a number of pedagogical and psychological aspects.
According to UNICEF [1], during this month of the war, more than half of the Ukrainian children, namely 4,3 million, were forced to leave their homes and move to safer environments, mainly in western Ukraine or abroad. In particular, 1,8 million children had been resettled as refugees in neighbouring countries and 2,5 million had been internally displaced within Ukraine. At the same time, as of today, 566 Ukrainian educational institutions have been damaged by explosions and shelling, of which 73 have been completely destroyed. Unfortunately, innocent children are victims of war (according to official data of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights alone, 78 Ukrainian children have been killed and 105 injured since the beginning of the war on 24 February, but the true number of child casualties is much higher – Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine reports about 120 child victims of war).
Given the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the aggressor country, from 24 February to 11 March, vacations began in all educational institutions in Ukraine. Since March 14, the educational process was resumed in all institutions (except pre-school institutions) in a distance format, but only in those regions of Ukraine where the security situation allowed.
Under these conditions, the Office of the President of Ukraine, relevant government agencies, the team of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine in cooperation with NGOs and international partners launched a number of useful resources for all participants of the training process, which are primarily aimed at providing psychological support, overcoming the traumatic and emotional problems caused by the war and creating conditions for learning, self-development and receiving help and verified information. It is worth mentioning some of them [2]: chatbot "Child is not alone" (@dytyna_ne_sama_bot), which is focused on helping minors in difficult wartime situations; online kindergarten project "NUMO" with video sessions for children from 3 to 6 years old; project All-Ukrainian Online Timetable for students of grades 1-11; platform "All-Ukrainian School Online", containing video lessons, abstracts, test tasks, as well as the Teacher’s Office, helping to stay in touch with students; educational project "Learning without borders"; daily online meetings with certified psychologists of the Association of Innovative and Digital Education; a series of information materials "Psychological care from Svіtlana Roiz"; telegram channel "Support the child" and many others.
Such initiatives help children to engage in cognitive activities, develop key skills and get away from war. It should be emphasized that in this process the psychological aspect was also taken into account because the content for children under stress due to the war should be not only interesting and informative but also safe.
References:
1. UNICEF (2022). More than half of Ukraine’s children displaced after one month of war. URL: https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/more-half-ukraines-children-displaced-after-one-month-war (24 March 2022).
2. Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine (2022). Remote platforms for learning, self-development and receiving assistance and verified information. URL: https://translate.google.com/?hl=uk&tab=TT (17 March 2022).
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