The UN Children’s Fund is holding face-to-face classes in Kharkov to help schoolchildren catch up on lost time. PLOT | Catch up with the school curriculum and communicate “live” with peers: how the dream of Kharkov children became a reality Culture and education
In a bomb shelter located under a school building on the outskirts of Kharkov, math teacher Tatyana walks around the classroom. She bends over every desk and every notebook. “I will come to each of you and explain everything,” she assures the children.
In addition to the classrooms, this underground shelter has an area with bunk beds, a cafeteria, and a community room. Due to the dire security situation in the region, dozens of local children have been coming here since the fall of 2023 to attend in-person classes.
Today in Tatiana’s lesson, 12-year-old Igor finally started studying geometry. This subject was not included in online classes.
“I live in Kharkiv. I haven’t gone to school for the last two years because of the war. But now I come here for Ukrainian language and mathematics lessons to catch up on what we missed when we studied online. It’s so good to study here. You can even live here!” – says the boy.
Tatyana, mathematics teacher.
For two years now, Igor, like thousands of other children in the Kharkov region, has not been able to attend school on a regular basis due to the armed conflict. Training is conducted primarily in an online format. However, due to regular power outages caused by strikes on energy facilities, online classes are often interrupted and postponed.
To address this problem, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is implementing a program “Catch-up”, which provides face-to-face classes in the region to help children catch up with their school curriculum. For lessons, places are chosen where there is always electricity.
“This is an incredible project,” says Tatyana. – Online learning cannot compare with face-to-face learning. I still don’t know what a child looks at when he sits in front of a monitor at home. Here I can explain everything in detail and clearly.”
“Children come here not only to learn, but also to socialize. There are children whom their parents bring here for socialization and acquisition of knowledge lost during the war,” she adds.
Lyudmila Palamar, head UNICEF programs in the Kharkov region, explains that not every teacher knows how to help children who are behind the school curriculum.
Igor, 12 years old.
“This is not what they were taught at university, we understand that very well. Therefore, before teachers join the program, they undergo a special course that teaches them, from an academic point of view, how to correctly understand what kind of knowledge losses or what kind of gaps a particular child has and how to work with it correctly,” reports she.
The school bomb shelter where Tatyana teaches was called the “Digital Learning Center.” There, the UNICEF catch-up program has been operating since September 2023. Children from third to 10th grades can attend mathematics and Ukrainian language lessons twice a week.
“The child will be offered an entrance test, and the teacher will use it as a basis for further work,” says Hannah, coordinator of the Center for Digital Learning.
“And at the end of the course, the child takes a final test to see how he has progressed,” she adds.
The project is extremely popular among children and parents and has attracted so many people that it was necessary to form additional groups. Today, more than 300 students come to the center.
Igor goes there with his mother, Tatyana. The journey takes them almost an hour, but this does not stop them. “I see that he has become better with mathematics and the new Ukrainian spelling,” says Tatyana. “The most important thing is that he has become more sociable and sociable.”
Igor with his mother Tatyana and classmate Yulia.
Tatiana and Igor live in an area that is constantly under shelling, so she is afraid to leave Igor alone at home or let him go outside unattended. “I’m used to people shooting in Kharkov,” says Igor, who often sleeps in the hallway with his mother and cat. Their apartment does not always have electricity and heating.
Lyudmila Palamar from UNICEF says that many teachers were not prepared to work with children who have experienced enormous stress and psychological trauma: “Therefore, understanding this, we also teach teachers how to properly work and interact with a child who lives in such conditions.”
“I have two dreams,” says Igor. “I want my cat to stop scratching me.” He is very sweet, but he is afraid of children. And I really want the war to end.”
According to the boy, classes at the Digital Learning Center help him feel safe: “We study in a bomb shelter, and there is no scary. And there is a generator.”
Today, there are already 10 centers in Kharkov where children can catch up with the school curriculum. Lyudmila Palamar says that one of the main ideas of the project was full-time education, which children in the region are now sorely lacking.
“In addition to the academic value, these lessons “catching up also serves an important socialization function,” she says.
Alice, 11 years old.
“That’s why we primarily focus exclusively on live interaction with the child,” adds the UNICEF representative.
Last two years 11 -year-old Alice dreamed of returning to school and sitting at her desk again: “I just want to walk along the corridors and see my friends in real life, and not through a camera.”
Thanks additional classes at the Digital Learning Center partially fulfilled her dream, although only for a few hours a week.
“I really like these classes. Every time I listen with enthusiasm and learn something new that was not taught to me during online lessons. I don’t understand well online, because the teacher can’t come up to me, show me or explain everything in detail,” notes Alisa.
Yulia, her 12-year-old my friend also really likes studying at the Digital Learning Center.
“With distance learning, I feel a little anxious and antisocial,” says the girl, who dreams of becoming a surgeon. “But when I come here, I feel good.” Studying is much more enjoyable when you have friends.”
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