According to Serbian Economist, the Serbian Ministry of Education has announced the financing of educational materials for migrant schoolchildren, including the translation and adaptation of materials into Ukrainian, as the language barrier remains one of the key challenges in integrating children into the education system.
Education Minister Dejan Vuk Stankovic noted that more than 5,500 migrant and asylum-seeking students have consistently passed through the Serbian education system. According to him, the ministry continues to support schools where migrant children study: mentors and external consultants are involved, and teaching materials are translated into the students’ native languages, currently Ukrainian and Arabic.
Stankovic reported that as part of this work, training events were held for more than 4,000 educators, teachers, principals, and support specialists, and more than 70 schools received support through grants. In addition, more than 3,000 individual support plans have been prepared and more than 10,000 additional classes have been held; support measures also included the distribution of books, textbooks, and school supplies.
The ministry also noted that the work on translating materials and supporting schools is being carried out with the participation of international partners. However, the amount of expenditure and the number of textbooks printed or materials translated into Ukrainian were not disclosed in the ministry’s public statements.
The Cabinet of Ministers has approved a proposal from the Ministry of Education and Science to implement a joint project with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to provide financial assistance to 1,500 educational institutions for the 2025/2026 academic year.
As reported by Taras Melnychuk, representative of the Cabinet of Ministers in the Verkhovna Rada, on Telegram, the relevant decision was made at a government meeting on Friday.
It is noted that the purpose of the assistance is to ensure that educational institutions are prepared for the winter period and to increase their energy sustainability in frontline and other vulnerable regions.
The amount of financial assistance is set at UAH 420,000 per institution, provided to the founder as a lump sum for each recipient institution, with the number of recipient institutions per founder not exceeding nine.
The decision defines the main criteria for selecting institutions: status as a general secondary or preschool educational institution; location in certain frontline and other vulnerable areas; belonging to territorial communities that do not have an insurmountable level of security risk; organization of full-time or blended learning; absence of accommodation functions for students; not classified as specialized military lyceums; compliance with additional criteria established by UNICEF.
As reported, 700 schools received UAH 290,000 from UNICEF to prepare for winter and modernize school canteens in the 2024/2025 academic year.
Representatives of Saudi Arabia have expressed their willingness to cooperate in the restoration of critical infrastructure in the Kyiv region, in particular in the completion of the construction of a secondary school for 600 students in the village of Hora, Boryspil district, according to the head of the Kyiv Regional Military Administration (OVA), Mykola Kalashnik.
“I held an online meeting with representatives of the Humanitarian Fund of His Royal Highness Prince Al-Walid bin Talal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and the Ukrainian-Arab Business Council. I sincerely thanked our partners from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for their willingness to cooperate and their genuine interest in restoring critical infrastructure in the Kyiv region,” he wrote on Telegram on Tuesday.
According to him, the Saudi side confirmed its support for the Kyiv region and its openness to implementing joint humanitarian and social projects. “The key topic of the conversation was the discussion of the completion of the construction of a secondary school for 600 students in the village of Hora in the Boryspil district – an important facility for the community, the construction of which was halted due to the full-scale war,” Kalashnik specified. He reported that the main part of the school has already been built. However, in order to fully commission it, a number of engineering, finishing, and improvement works remain to be completed, as well as the construction of a modern shelter in accordance with safety requirements. According to the head of the OVA, the possibility of involving the Prince Al-Waleed Fund in this project was discussed with the Saudis.
“We are counting on partnership participation in financing the final phase of construction, because this school is the future for hundreds of children in the community,” Kalashnik added.
“I also invited representatives of Saudi businesses to cooperate with the Kyiv region. Our region is not only an area in need of restoration, but also a region of great opportunities. There is potential for launching investment projects in the fields of construction, agriculture, energy, and manufacturing. The interest shown by our Arab partners is further proof that the Kyiv region remains promising and economically attractive even in difficult times,” said the head of the region.
The Crisis and Support Center (CDCS) of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs has handed over 28 generators to a school in Chernihiv, Ambassador of the French Republic to Ukraine Gael Weissier said after a visit to Chernihiv.
“A new trip to Chernihiv, a priority region, where, together with the head of the regional state administration and Expertise France, we signed agreements with three hospitals, inspected the repair of the roof of the theater that was hit on 19/08/23, and handed over assistance from the Centre de Crise et de Soutien in the form of 28 generators to be used in a local school,” the ambassador wrote on social network X.
The Optima Distance School has announced that it has been forced to suspend the construction of an educational center near Kyiv due to unfounded accusations by law enforcement officials of illegal land acquisition.
Maria Miletska, founder and CEO of the Optima distance school, told Interfax-Ukraine at a press conference on Tuesday that the issue is the investigation by law enforcement agencies that accused her of illegally seizing a 4 hectare plot of land near Kyiv.
According to Miletska, the project has been suspended for at least four months.
For his part, Miletska’s lawyer, Oleksandr Protas, noted that, according to the accusations by law enforcement agencies, Miletska has no legal rights to the land plot, despite the fact that she purchased it on the secondary market at a market price.
Protas clarified that the land plot was alienated from the land fund of the Ministry of Defense six or seven years ago and has changed hands several times since then.
“As it turned out later, this land is under investigation because it became a source of enrichment for some officials. I can’t comment on whether this land was transferred to individuals legally or illegally, but Maria Miletska bought this land absolutely legally, at a market price. A company engaged in professional land search offered the land, all payments were made in non-cash form, and there were no comments from the state registrar or the notary who carried out the registration. And after the land was acquired, Maria Oleksandrivna, unfortunately, became a party to the criminal proceedings,” he said.
At the same time, the lawyer emphasized the “unprecedented pressure (on Miletska – IF-U) from the investigators who are investigating this case”.
“I was present during the searches that took place unexpectedly, I witnessed outright threats against me. There was no need to conduct such investigative actions as a search at all, because the documents that law enforcement officers needed were provided voluntarily,” he said.
Protas noted that “there are already two court decisions where Maria Oleksandrivna is recognized as an absolutely bona fide purchaser of this land.”
“The panel of judges took the side of our client that Maria Miletska did not alienate the land from the Ministry of Defense, that Miletska purchased it from individuals to whom the state had no claims until recently,” he said.
Protas clarified that the local village council distributed the land among its residents back in 2017, and until 2023, they were absolutely the legal owners of the land.
At the same time, Protas noted that his client has no grounds to apply to the ECHR so far, as all the possibilities for protection provided by national law have not been exhausted.
In turn, the founder of the Optima School, Latvian citizen Roberts Vaisla, noted that the school has already implemented several educational projects in Ukraine. These include the Optima Kids project, which provides educational materials and enables children to prepare for school, and a college that provides training in three specialties.
In addition, Optima has received Cambridge accreditation and is preparing content that allows Ukrainian children to study according to Cambridge standards and programs in Ukraine.
Five pilot schools will be opened in Ukraine in 2024 within the framework of the project of architectural transformation of Soviet educational institutions, the Ministry of Education and Science reports.
“Next year it is planned to open five pilot schools that have been selected for the project of architectural transformation of Soviet educational institutions. These are schools in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Krivoy Rog and Zaporizhzhya, damaged by the war. They will be working already from the fall of 2024. There will not only make a new repair, but will completely rethink the typical Soviet school spaces”, – stated in the message of the press service of the Ministry.
It is noted that new design solutions in schools will allow to effectively implement the principles of the “New Ukrainian School”, in particular, qualitatively realize the activity approach in teaching, conduct experiments, flexibly adapt classes to different learning needs.
“Also, we must do everything to make schools truly safe and inclusive. And this is more relevant than ever in times of war,” the department emphasized.
According to the report, the changes in educational institutions were led and implemented by the Ministry of Education and Science, the Ministry of Digital Transformation and Ukrainian urban bureau Big City Lab, concepts were created with the participation of European architects Rebuild the Wonderful, and the creation of the concept of transformation of five pilot schools is funded by the Mariupol Reborn public organization.
ARCHITECTURE, educational institution, PROJECT, SCHOOL, TRANSFORMATION
