“As of March 15, 2022, 400 educational institutions were affected by bombing and shelling. 59 of them were completely destroyed, and the number of refugees as of March 13, 2022 amounted to almost 2.698 million people. Since the beginning of the Russian invasion in Ukraine, 85 children have died and more than 100 have been injured. It is extremely difficult to assess the impact of the war on the education and research sectors, especially due to the unpredictability of further developments and issues with the collection of information,” – reported the Minister in his Telegram channel.
Serhii Shkarlet noted that continuity of education and creation of safe conditions for education and teaching remains an indisputable and strategic priority for the Ministry of Education and Science.
“The support of international partners and their desire to join in ensuring a continuous educational process in Ukraine is extremely important for the Ukrainian educational community.
I took part in a meeting of the Sectoral Working Group “Education and Science” under the Ministry of Education and Science, conducted by the Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine Serhii Shkarlet. To the Minister’s request more than 100 representatives of foreign partner organizations responded, who are ready to provide financial, organizational-methodological, scientific as well as grant support for our students, lecturers and scientists.
First Deputy Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine Andrii Vitrenko presented a vision of the current state of education and a plan-concept of the functioning of the education system of Ukraine during martial law and the period of reconstruction.
It was a very productive dialogue with a very wide range of partners and friends of Ukraine to form an international coalition in support of Ukrainian education and science, which in the future, after the war, will help our education system to function in peacetime.
With joint efforts the victory will be ours! Strength lies in knowledge and educated youth! Everything will be Ukraine!” – commented the Rector Volodymyr Onyshchenko.
Currently, the Ministry has coordinated the activities of education authorities on the functioning of preschool, general secondary, out-of-school and inclusive education institutions in the regions, as well as:
- created a number of projects on distance learning and support of children in educational institutions;
- agreements have been reached on providing free access to the Coursera, edX, Udemy platforms;
- conducted trainings with Israeli specialists for Ukrainian educators on the organization of educational services during hostilities;
- together with the representatives of the Ukrainian Parliament, a corresponding bill was developed, which proposes to introduce in 2022 a special procedure for admission to institutions of professional and higher education;
- measures are being taken to relocate the servers of the Unified State Electronic Database on Education;
- coordination of evacuation of foreign students is provided;
- an online information tool has been developed and is being prepared for launch for subjects of scientific, scientific-technical and innovative activities who have left for safe regions of Ukraine or abroad;
- an interactive map of damaged and destroyed educational institutions “Education in emergency” was launched;
- daily monitoring and collection of information on the work of educational institutions, the condition of buildings, the movement of orphans, and other needs are carried out.
Serhii Shkarlet has also informed that he had addressed with letters for support all relevant ministers of the EU member states and is now receiving daily answers about their openness to joint actions in counteracting the Russian aggressor. Effective online meetings have already been held with the Ministers of the relevant Ministries of Poland and Ireland, as well as the Lithuanian, Latvian, Estonian, Italian, Hellenic, Czech and French Republics. All of them express their unwavering support for Ukraine in the fight against unprecedented aggression by the Russian Federation.
It should be recalled that world leaders in business education expressed solidarity with the people of Ukraine.
