Security and personnel: what are the challenges facing educational institutions in the frontline areas
Most schools in Kherson, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhya and Kharkiv regions reported a complicated security situation at the beginning of the school year. This is evidenced by the survey data of the “Vostok SOS” Charitable Foundation in cooperation with the NGO “Kharkiv Institute of Social Research”, which was conducted in the summer of 2023. In the south and east of Ukraine, 41% of school buildings are located on temporarily occupied territory. Threats of shelling and mines were noted in a third of educational institutions. Photo: uatp12/Depositphitos “Explosions can be heard, drones are sometimes shot down near a populated place,” say educators of the Kherson region. Only 19% of schools in the frontline regions described the security situation as calm and safe. “The sounds of artillery work do not subside, we hear shelling from the side of the contact line, they hit neighboring settlements all the time,” they say in Zaporizhzhia. It is worth noting that only 46% of educational institutions in the front-line territory have their own shelters. Another 40% of shelters need repair and equipment. Read also: “I want to study without the fear that the school will be attacked by rioters”: Mykolaiv Lyceum students need shelter. The composition of the teaching staff varies depending on the institution and location. 80% of the schools that took part in the survey have 10-50 staff members. Half of the educational institutions have a fully staffed staff. In 58% of schools, staff have not left since the start of the full-scale invasion. At the same time, 64% of schools noted that they have teachers with IDP status. Less than 10% of educational institutions have moved to another city or region in their entirety. Read also: More than 10 students live under the care of teachers. How the Kharkiv gymnasium moved to Vilnius together with the children. In one third of the schools, part of the teaching staff is under occupation. Most of them are teachers of institutions whose premises are located on TOT. Only two schools stated that more than 90% of teachers remained in the temporarily occupied territory. The greatest shortage is of teachers of physics, mathematics, chemistry, biology, foreign languages, informatics, and history to a lesser extent. 17% of general secondary education institutions indicated that they do not have psychologists on staff. This fact can seriously affect children who have experienced traumatic events and stress as a result of war. Readiness monitoring was carried out during July-August 2023. 220 institutions of general secondary education from the Kherson, Mykolaiv, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhya and Kharkiv regions took part in the survey. The surveyed schools of the Luhansk region are displaced, the institutions work remotely as a result of the temporary occupation of part of the region. An identical situation is observed among some schools in the Kherson region and Zaporizhzhia. Read also: “Children in the occupation caught the Internet in the cemetery”: what challenges does the war pose to educators and schoolchildren
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