On Wednesday, May 10, Chernihiv hosted the workshop “Restoring Access to Education: Dialogue on the Role of Ukrainian Municipalities in Repair, Recovery and Reconstruction”, during which the U-LEAD’s initiative “Local School Rehabilitation for Resilience" was presented.
Opening the workshop, Peter Wagner, Head of the Service for Foreign Policy Instruments of the European Commission, pointed out:
“Through this project, we combine decentralization with the great need to restore education in the most affected regions. Through the existing structure of U-LEAD we can swiftly bring the support to a wide range of partners across the country. And we think that reconstruction should start with the schools, because the children are our future”.
According to Bastian Veigel, Programme Director of U-LEAD with Europe, the school is the heart of the municipality:
“Ukrainians are ready to attract money from all possible funding sources to restore schools. This is confirmed by the experience of reconstructing school No.3 of Chernihiv municipality that hosts the workshop. When we talk about the reconstruction of schools, it is about the institutional development of the educational system in municipalities. Education becomes a key prerequisite for the restoration of territories, return of families to their homes.”
During the event, representatives of international organizations, government structures, savED and “Brave to Rebuild” charitable foundations, NGO Center for Innovative Education “Pro.Svit” and representatives of Ukrainian hromadas discussed how local self-government and teams of educators solve complex problems of restoring access to education at the local level, and shared the experience of implementing projects for the repair, restoration and reconstruction of schools.
The U-LEAD initiative “Local School Rehabilitation for Resilience” will be implemented by the municipalities in partnership with the charitable foundations savED, “Brave to Rebuild” and the NGO “Pro.Svit”. Local governments will receive assistance in assessing the damage and funding needs to restore school buildings or, if they are inapt or destroyed, to transport students to undamaged schools or provide access to online learning through the creation of the Digital Learning Centers.
“As part of the preparation for the repair and reconstruction project of 12 schools, representatives of our organization inspected 25 schools in three regions. Seven schools from Kharkiv oblast, two from Kyiv oblast and three from Chernihiv oblast, affected by hostilities and occupation, were selected for the pilot project. The main criteria were an increase in the number of students, the motivation of the director and teachers, the availability of bomb shelters agreed with the State Emergency Service, as well as a guarantee that the school will not be closed for the next three years,” noted Vitaliy Selyk, head of the “Brave to Rebuild” charitable foundation.
In these 12 schools, it is planned to install 209 new windows, three roofs, 296 internal and external doors, repair 112 premises (classrooms, corridors, gyms, etc.), as well as restore electricity and networks. And an important factor is the creation of comfortable toilet rooms with hot water supply.
“We will act according to the “Build back better” principle so that the schools renovated by us will become better than they used to be, will become capable of developing themselves, looking for opportunities to improve conditions and the educational process,” Vitaliy Selyk emphasized.
Representative of savED, Anna Putsova, spoke about the areas of work of the charitable foundation, in particular, about the Digital Learning Centers initiative:
“Learning centers are the first emergency aid for restoring education in municipalities. For children, these are the places for individual work and online learning. A variety of extracurricular activities are held there. This is a real space for children. We plan to continue this project in partnership with U-LEAD.”
One of the key messages of the seminar was that families return to those municipalities where schools and kindergartens operate. After all, this is an opportunity for mothers to work, and for children to learn and develop. It is well confirmed by the numbers from Chernihiv.
“In April 2022, 12% of preschool children and 17% of schoolchildren remained in the city. When it became clear that schools and kindergartens will be open from September 1, almost 86% of preschool children and 69% of students returned to the city,” said Vasyl Bilohura, Head of the Education Department of the Chernihiv City Council.
