“Bell” of Unicef ​​for 5 million children of Ukraine: “The war has disrupted their education”

The alarm bell for children living in Ukraine is sounded by Unicef pointing out that the war has affected the education of over five million.

The 11 months of conflict have exacerbated the major problems in Ukraine’s education sector caused by the coronavirus pandemic, according to Unicef, and the situation is even worse for children in eastern Ukraine, where the war raging for eight years.

Hostilities in residential areas today result in many buildings housing schools or other educational structures being destroyed or severely damaged.

Parents are afraid to send them to school

At the same time, many parents hesitate to send their children to school for safety reasons, according to the same img.

While over 1.9 million children have access to distance education and 1.3 million children are enrolled in a combination of in-person and online educationrecent attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure have caused widespread blackouts, meaning even access to distance learning is a challenge.

“Millions of students have been forced to learn from home due to the threat of bombings and missile strikes, and now their ability to take online classes is further affected by frequent power and internet outages,” says Sonia Kush, director of of the Ukrainian branch of the charity organization Save the Children, as reported by the Athens News Agency.

According to the organization, every second day since the start of the academic year a school is destroyed in Ukraine.

A total of 3,025 educational facilities (schools, kindergartens and universities) have been bombed since Russia invaded Ukraine last February and 406 of them have been completely destroyed, Save the Children said, citing data from the Ukrainian Ministry of Education and Science.

Meanwhile, two out of three Ukrainian refugee children living abroad are not enrolled in the host country’s education system, Unicef ​​notes.

“Schools and preschools provide a critical sense of belonging and safety to children, and when they miss lessons they are at risk of long-term consequences. There is no pause button. It is not an option to simply postpone children’s education and return to it when other priorities have been addressed without risking the future of an entire generation,” points out Ashan Khan, who is UNICEF’s regional director for Europe and Central Asia.