For 12 months, starting from September 19, 2024, the Ukrainian School of Elites, in collaboration with top experts, and supported by international donors from the WEA Business Coalition, is developing an EdTech project to support teachers. The project’s goal is to provide them with professionally crafted online resources and methodological materials for teaching the mandatory Ukrainian language during and despite the war.
Why This EdTech Project Is Important
Consequences of Annexation and Occupation: In 2014, the Russian Federation annexed Crimea and occupied significant parts of Ukraine’s eastern territories, causing grief and damage to millions of Ukrainian citizens. Over 1 million Ukrainians became internally displaced persons (IDPs), and the same number fled abroad. This led to issues in the education sector: overcrowded classrooms, overburdened teachers, and a decline in the quality of education.
Impact of COVID-19: The coronavirus pandemic forced millions of Ukrainian citizens (as well as those in other countries) into self-isolation, placing additional strain on the education system and negatively affecting learning quality. Schools and universities were unprepared for online education, and there were no adequate online resources for distance, blended, or online learning formats.
Full-Scale Aggression by the RF: The full-scale military aggression by the Russian Federation against Ukraine, which began on February 24, 2022, has caused irreparable damage. Over 7 million citizens have become IDPs, and the same number (about 7 million, 5 million of whom officially registered in EU countries for assistance) have mostly fled abroad. Thus, approximately 14 million Ukrainian citizens have suffered direct harm, while the rest of the 28 million have experienced indirect effects.
Consequences of the Russian War
As of October 2024, Russian troops have conducted over 1,000 air attacks on Ukraine, including mass missile and drone strikes. In August 2024 alone, there were reports of 236 missiles and drones launched in a single day at peaceful Ukrainian cities.
As of 2024, Russian forces have occupied or repurposed about 3,790 educational institutions for military purposes. Approximately 180 schools have been destroyed due to missile strikes, and over 1,700 schools have been damaged.
How Learning in Schools Has Changed During the War
To diversify risks to the lives and health of students and teachers, many schools have implemented a shift-based learning schedule: for example, two weeks of in-class learning followed by two weeks at home in an online format.
However, the question remains: where can teachers find resources for effective online teaching? How can they find the extra time and energy to create such online resources on their own amid shelling and air raid alarms? This is especially pertinent for “non-technological” subjects like the Ukrainian language, which is crucial for admission to any higher education institution in Ukraine.
Need for Online Resources
Most humanitarian organizations have focused on saving lives, prioritizing survival needs —safety, food, clothing. However, the education sector, particularly the teaching of the Ukrainian language to students in grades 5-11, has largely been overlooked.
Thus, one urgent issue is the lack or insufficiency of online resources for teachers (primarily for the Ukrainian language as the state and official language in Ukraine) in the context of war and uncertainty.
Project Details
The goal of the project initiated by the Ukrainian School of Elites is to provide Ukrainian language teachers with professionally developed online resources and methodological materials for teaching during the war, in times of uncertainty, and across various learning formats.
Project Objectives
As a result, Ukrainian language teachers will gain free access to online materials developed according to the methodology and requirements of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine for teaching Ukrainian to students in grades 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11.
Positive Impact
Access to these resources will alleviate the burden on Ukrainian language teachers, making it easier for them to teach, especially online, and even in classroom settings (for example, by displaying presentations on screens using projectors).
The project will improve students’ understanding of the Ukrainian language—thanks to visual aids, tables, diagrams, terminology, and other elements that will now be displayed on screens (instead of just a “talking head” on a phone without proper visual-methodological support).
Teachers’ lives will improve thanks to the ready-made materials from the project. In one lesson, teachers will be able to convey more material and reinforce it better. They won’t need to waste time becoming “designers” (which is a separate profession) for presentations or “developers” (which is an IT field) for technological solutions.
Teachers will spend more time on individual approaches, addressing students’ clarification questions, practicing exercises, engaging in interactive Q&A, or even games during lessons.
Students’ learning experiences will improve due to the elimination of disinterest in Ukrainian language lessons. Visual tools will help keep students focused on the key points, enhancing the empirical method of knowledge acquisition (by engaging the senses—sight, hearing, touch). Information will be easier to comprehend. Memorizing new terms will be simpler. There will be more opportunities to clarify unclear or complex grammatical phenomena. Students will have more chances to ask questions and receive personalized answers.
The availability of online resources will facilitate learning even amidst uncertainty and upheaval, in a distance format—online or in classrooms.
Quantitative Outcomes
We expect to reach at least 1,000 teachers and over 10,000 students. Due to the project’s long-term impact (developed over 12 months, but the use of the Ukrainian language materials will be ongoing), we anticipate reaching around 10,000 teachers and 100,000 students over the project’s five-year duration.
