The academic year 2022/2023 is coming to an end. Russian aggression against Ukraine made it, to put it mildly, unique and led, among other things, to psychological damage and gaps in education. Local self-government bodies must do their best to ensure compensation for this damage.
Ihor Ahibalov, Head of the Regional Office of U-LEAD with Europe in the Luhansk oblast, told about this at the info session “Organised End of the Academic Year”, which was held by his Regional Office for municipalities from the Eastern oblasts of Ukraine.
What is the educational damage?
According to Serhii Diatlenko, Education Management Expert at U-LEAD, educational damage can be broadly described as the failure of students to achieve educational results due to the absence or limited opportunities for learning.
As he noted, the research of the State Service of Education Quality of Ukraine shows that only 40% of the surveyed parents reported the uninterrupted educational process of their children during this school year. Learning was hindered by air-raid sirens, power and internet outages, sheltering, hostilities in the territories of municipalities, destroyed buildings of educational institutions or their use as shelters for IDPs, etc.
Moreover, over the past year, the mental state of education seekers has noticeably deteriorated. Compared to early February 2022, the number of anxious and tense students has almost doubled, and the number of students feeling exhausted has increased by half.
The expert pointed to a procedure for compensation for psychological and educational damage. It should start with monitoring the level of this damage, i.e. for each student and for each class or educational field. Then the needs and resources (time frames, personnel, conditions) should be analysed. The next step is to determine the ways of compensation, as well as those who will help to implement it, such as the administration of the institution, teachers and parents. The final step is the introduction of the plan, its implementation, adjustments and follow-up.
Ensuring compensation for psychological and educational damage, as was stressed by Ihor Ahibalov, is mandatory for local self-government bodies.
“The form and content of compensation may vary among educational institutions. This can be an extension of the academic year, organisation of individual and group classes/consultations, summer schools or courses, etc. The compensation format can be discussed and chosen by the educational institution together with the parents of schoolchildren.”
According to him, out of more than 60 surveyed participants of the event, half of the municipalities participating in the info session have already planned measures to compensate for psychological and educational damage.