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Education is a powerful tool to reintegrate children and young people from TOT

Feb. 12, 2022, 12:16 p.m.

The forum called “Education for the Youth from TOT: Results in 2021 - Horizons for 2022” completed its work in Sviatohirsk, Donetsk region. The NGO “Open Policy Foundation” organized this event in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and with the support of the USAID “Democratic Governance in Eastern Ukraine” project.

 

The forum gathered together 46 educators from Donetsk, Luhansk, Kirovohrad, Zhytomyr, Kherson oblasts and Kyiv, who worked with schoolchildren and students from the temporarily occupied territories; they work as distance education teachers, heads and officials of admissions committees, “Donbas/Crimea-Ukraine” education centers, teachers of preparatory courses for entrants from TOT, as well as consultants of the Government and regional hotlines on education for residents of TOT, representatives of district, city, and community education departments, as well as NGOs working with the youth from TOT and areas along the contact line.

 

The three-day educational marathon, which was held in a mixed mode - offline and online, was focused on discussing the results of the 2021 admission campaign for the children from TOT, analyzing successes and problems of that campaign, as well as outlining prospects and tasks for 2022.

 

According to Svitlana Kretovych, Head of the Department of Education and Science of the Directorate for Internal and Humanitarian Policy at the Office of the President of Ukraine, the number of entrants who entered through “Donbas/Crimea-Ukraine” education centers has increased this year - 2,083 persons used the service. In total, over the years education centers have helped 12,367 children from the temporarily occupied territories and the area along the contact line to enter Ukrainian universities.

 

“The right to education is one of the basic human rights. I am glad that since 2016 we have been working to ensure the realization of this right for the children from TOT. I am grateful to the public organizations, which were involved in the creation and organization of a new model – ‘Donbas/Crimea-Ukraine’ education centers. There were many challenges in the way, which we managed to overcome together,” Svitlana Kretovych said.

 

Tetyana Sidasheva, Director of the Department of Education and Science of the Donetsk Regional State Administration, also addressed the forum: “Thank you for the opportunity to discuss with the direct participants of the educational program for the children from TOT the steps we must take to help children receive the Ukrainian education. By working together, we can help reintegrate the occupied territories. It is through children that we can prove the ability and strength that exists in Ukraine and national education. We can, we work and we prove it every day.”

 

During the forum, the participants also discussed the need to create a staffing position for the education center head. “We are working with the Ministry of Finance to include the position of the education center head in the staffing of universities. There should be separate funding for this position, as it will help not only increase the efficiency of education centers but also ensure the continuity of the entire system. You will admit that it harms the system when in the absence of payment for this work each time the function of the education center head is entrusted to another person. The same applies to the administrator of EDEBO (Unified State Electronic Database on Education),” said Vitalii Nosok, State Expert at the Main Department of Higher and Adult Education of the Directorate of Professional Pre-higher and Higher Education of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine.

 

Iryna Zhdanova, Executive Director of the Open Policy Foundation, said that the creation of a staffing position is very good and encouraging news, and resolving this issue is very important. “Such funds are not so big for the state budget, but the system would be more efficient. I know a lot of cases when the managers and employees of education centers actually become so-called a family for a child from TOT who comes to study in the controlled area. This is a person with whom parents can contact if necessary, who can support students, help, and give them advice. Therefore, of course, this staffing position should be provided for in the structure of HEI,” Iryna Zhdanova emphasized.

 

At the Education Cafe, the teams worked on creating roadmaps of the communication campaign for admission in 2022 and developing documents to minimize the challenges associated with distance learning for the children from TOT. Participants exchanged cases of success stories and mistakes that occurred during the admission campaign and shared stories related to professional anxieties.

 

“I believe that the work on the reintegration of TOT, in particular, an educational one, will be continued. After all, there is a synergy of people who believe that children living in temporarily occupied territories have a future, and they help them. The smiles of students who came from the temporarily occupied territories, their first achievements in education - this is what inspires us to continue working and doing our best,” said Olena Horlova, the manager of the “Donbas-Ukraine” education center at Horlivka Institute of Foreign Languages.

 

“We did not only study at the forum but also had the opportunity to discuss very serious things for our society. Representatives of the education sector were gathered to solve the most painful problem - war and peace. We are partially solving it by reintegrating children into the Ukrainian space,” assured Anatolii Pohorielov, Head of the Sloviansk Secondary School of І-ІІІ levels № 13 of the Sloviansk City Council, Donetsk Oblast.

 

While working together, the participants created documents that would be useful for the strategic planning of the future admission campaign and they would help improve an education program for children from the temporarily occupied territories. Thus, a detailed communicative roadmap of the “2022 Admission for residents from TOT” media campaign has been formed for higher education institutions. During the development of the roadmap, it is important to consider the regional needs of universities and challenges faced by the participants of the 2021 admission campaign (closed EECPs, quarantine barriers, problems of applicants related to language and psychological adaptation, etc.). Given these challenges, the forum participants have developed specific proposals that will allow universities to more effectively inform us about the educational opportunities of institutions and plan the work of education centers in 2022. The participants created constituent documents for secondary educational institutions, which have long been needed by schools that provide distance and external studies for the students from TOT. These are guidelines for teachers of primary, basic, and specialized education, a program for the development of distance education for children from the temporarily occupied territories, and a program of educational and psychological adaptation and preparation for Independent External Evaluation for preparatory course participants and students from TOT, who receive education in non-government-controlled areas.

 

The forum participants have already received all the developed materials and they have the opportunity to use them in their daily work. In addition, the Open Policy Foundation provided representatives of educational institutions, communities, and local NGOs working with children and youth from TOT with the following information products, which were created for the 2022 admission campaign by the Foundation and the MoES with USAID support: posters and leaflets containing the information about enrollment requirements through the simplified procedure, detailed instructions on distance learning in Ukrainian schools and contacts of the Government and regional hotlines.

 

“I am increasingly convinced that the education of children from the temporarily occupied territories must be raised to the level of international negotiations. I’d like to say that local educators are doing their best and even more. That is why it is time to support your efforts at the state level by strategic and systematic work,” Iryna Zhdanova said.