2023-08-29 13:11:21
It’s been four years since going back to school hasn’t been normal for teachers, professors, boys and girls, or families. In this sense, the start of the school year in Ukraine will again be limited. This time because of the war with Russia and before because of the coronavirus pandemic. coronavirus. This has caused, how could it be otherwise, a “pervasive learning loss” with direct effect on their knowledge of the Ukrainian language, as UNICEF warned on Tuesday.
According to a statement from the UN agency for children, collected by Efe, the attacks on educational infrastructures in Ukraine and the low level of schooling in countries that host Ukrainian refugees have generated learning disabilities in the 6.7 million Ukrainian minors between the ages of 3 and 18 years.
UNICEF Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia, Queen of the Sundays who has recently visited Ukraine, has said that the attacks on schools in the country have left children “deeply distressed and without safe spaces to learn”, which also affects their retention of what has been learned in normal times.
wartime education
Thus, according to what the latest surveys show, the 57% of the teachers reported a deterioration in the abilities of the students related to the Ukrainian language and 45% to mathematics, and 52% reported a reduction in abilities related to foreign languages.
According to the most recent enrollment data, in Ukraine only a third of elementary and middle school students are receiving classes entirely in person; another third follow a mixed model with face-to-face and online classes, and the remaining third do so completely online.
The agency notes that the online education is a short term solutionbut it cannot replace in-person classes, essential for social development and fundamental teachings.
With respect to the youngest, two thirds of preschool-age children are not attending these centers, a situation that worsens in the areas on the front line of the conflict, where 75% of families report that they do not send their children to preschools.
The odyssey of studying in the host country
More than half of school-age refugee children are not enrolled in the national education systems of seven host countries, and those most likely to miss out are those who would go to pre-school and secondary school, due to language barriers or the saturation of the systems, indicates the statement.
He has also pointed out that the refugee children not enrolled in local schools are probably trying to study online following the Ukrainian curriculum or other distance learning platforms, although some may have dropped out entirely. It must be noted that an adaptation period is also needed because often they may not speak the language of the host country.
Despite everything, UNICEF has verified that in times of crisis and war, schools are more than places of learning: offer security and routine to children who have suffered loss, displacement and violence; the opportunity to make friends and receive help from teachers; and access vaccines, food and psychological support services.
The agency claimed to work with governments and NGOs on the ground in Ukraine and in host countries to improve access to education. At the same time, it is helping the Ukrainian government, through school rehabilitation and remedial classes, to support some 300,000 children at risk of missing the next school year, among other things.
Main image: daily life in Avdiivka, Donetsk / Efe
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