Ganna welcomes us into a vast but empty school entrance. Corridors that should be echoing to the sounds of children’s voices on the first day of school are silent, only our conversation can be heard.
This is the frontline city of Sumy, just 30 kms from the border with the Russian Federation. As if a reminder was needed, the sporadic thud of war can be heard in the distance from the school yard.
But there are other more joyful sounds too.
Ganna, the school principal, leads us down to a basement from where music and young voices float up the stairway. In the room are first graders, starting out on their school journey, and eleventh graders entering their final year, both enjoying the first bell ceremony.
It’s a rare moment to be together for children who have lived through far too much fear and stress over the past few years.
“I am so thankful for being here today, not online, it’s the last year of school, it’s fun to be here chatting together to laugh,” says 17-year-old Iryna. She’s spent the past few years largely isolated from her peers and school life.
“We just want to memorize it, so when I go to university, another town or country, I want to have a memory of the faces of all my classmates. I want to be able to tell my grandchildren about my school class,” she adds.
Developing against all odds
It’s remarkable that young people like Iryna are still able to thrive in their studies despite the incessant disruptions to her education.
“She’s a great student, one of the brightest,” Ganna explains, proud of the school’s role in nurturing such talent.
The hope is that the first graders in the room, like Nazar, just starting out on their learning journey, experience an education where classes in basements to stay safe are no longer the norm. School life as it should be, in class every day with friends learning, developing, building life skills and having fun.
Nazar plays a lead role at the first bell ceremony, handing flowers to Ganna the principal and joining the dance. He’s excited to be here and tells me he can read to 13 in English, which he quickly reels off. I fail to do the same so succinctly in Ukrainian.
“Children are still here [in Sumy] and they need this kind of celebration because they are staying here,” says his mum, Iryna. “They want this happiness they don’t want to hear and listen to only bad things, we try to provide everything, especially happiness for them,” she adds.
Iryna explains that Nazar’s sister is in Grade 8 but isn’t here given the restriction on the number of children allowed. The lack of in-person schooling has impacted on her education, but she’s been working hard to recover some of that lost learning. “My daughter participates in catch up classes and it was very helpful. A lot of caregivers are in need, they need this support for their children,” she says.
Nurturing the future
UNICEF is working with the Ministry of Education and Science to improve access to safe education, including remedial and catch-up learning to help bridge urgent gaps. This forms part of the vision for education and skills in Ukraine, grounded in a life-course approach—supporting children and young people from early childhood through their school years and into adolescence and beyond.
There are some positive steps forward. In the neighboring Kharkiv region, 149 general secondary schools and 85 kindergartens reopened for in-person and blended learning, compared to only 26 schools and 2 kindergartens at the start of the last school year.
We say that children and young people are key to Ukraine’s recovery and that’s because, put simply, they are the future. That’s where hope rests and young people like Iryna and Nazar exemplify why the future is in good hands
The determination to succeed against all odds is ever present.
“I can say, only I can do it, no one will instead of me, only I can it’s my life it’s COVID, war, but only I can make my life. I want to succeed in this life I want to be proud of myself,” says Iryna.
Our responsibility, working with a range of partners, is to provide the stability, skills and opportunities needed so that young people like Iryna transitioning into adulthood and Nasar starting out in school, can thrive in life.
