2023-11-25 06:00:09
Everything has been done to ensure that classes reopen as quickly as possible. But it was not until seventeen months after the withdrawal of Russian forces from the martyred town of Boutcha, in the western suburbs of kyiv, that all the students returned. School number 3 has had a facelift: the shattered roof and blown out windows have been repaired, the angry graffiti of Russian soldiers covered with several layers of paint. This Monday, November 20, the classes are full and the corridors are noisy with students. More than 1,500 schoolchildren, aged 6 to 16, including 120 displaced young people who left regions close to the front line, returned to school in September, according to the vice-director, Natalya Kharchenko.
Natalya Kharchenko, vice-director of school number 3, in Boutcha, November 20, 2023. ADRIEN VAUTIER /THE PICTORIUM FOR “THE WORLD”
The Boutcha school is one of the fifty establishments which the NGO Human Rights Watch visited as part of an investigation into the destruction caused by the Russian invasion. Published on November 9, this report, entitled “Tanks in the playground: attacks on schools and military use of schools in Ukraine”, documents the destruction caused by Russian air attacks and artillery fire in the first months of the invasion on schools in four regions of the country.
Human Rights Watch also visited educational facilities occupied by Kremlin forces, used as military barracks, hospitals, torture centers, and prisons for civilians. To a lesser extent, Ukrainian soldiers also took up positions in schools.
In a classroom at school number 3 in Boutcha, November 20, 2023. Russian troops lived in the school during the occupation of the city in March 2022. ADRIEN VAUTIER /THE PICTORIUM FOR “THE WORLD” In a classroom classroom of school number 3 in Boutcha, November 20, 2023. It accommodates 1,500 students, almost 200 more than before the invasion. Some displaced families still live in the region. ADRIEN VAUTIER /THE PICTORIUM FOR “THE WORLD”
“The attacks had a devastating impact on Ukrainian children’s access to education during the war, and likely long after, as repairing and rebuilding schools, especially amid other destroyed civilian infrastructure, will require significant resources and a lot of time », worry the authors of the report. According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Education and Science, more than 3,428 institutions, including universities and orphanages, were damaged and 365 “completely destroyed”.
The authorities are engaged in a race against time to get students who have dropped out of school back up to speed, while ensuring their safety. Every school must have a bomb shelter. Thus, if school number 3 in Boutcha was able to reopen its doors, it is because it has its own, capable of welcoming all the schoolchildren in the event of an alert.
According to Zoya Lytvyn, director of the NGO Osvitoria, specializing in the field of education, almost 42% of Ukrainian students today go to classrooms daily. “These are schools that are far enough from the front line to allow children to have two minutes before reaching shelters in the event of an air alert”, she explains. For others, school continues to operate online, sometimes in a hybrid manner, in class in the morning, by videoconference in the afternoon.
You have 60% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
#Ukraine #heavy #impact #war #schools