First Lady Olena Zelenska held an online meeting with Hanna Novikova from Kryvy Rih Gymnasium. She is one of over 38,000 Ukrainian teachers who received a laptop from the Olena Zelenska Foundation.
Ms. Hanna teaches fifth graders of Kryvy Rih gymnasium computer science and an interdisciplinary STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) course. This course requires a lot of practice. It is hard to do this remotely, but the teacher selects such videos that can be viewed on any device because learning in the gymnasium is online.
Since 2022, the Olena Zelenska Foundation has been working in the field of education to improve the conditions of distance learning. The focus of the activity, in particular, is on helping teachers and students who were forced to switch to online classes due to the full-scale war.
Today, schools in Ukraine have mainly mixed or distance learning.
Together with HP and Microsoft, partners of the Digital Equity for Ukraine project of the Global Business Coalition for Education (GBC-Education), in cooperation with the Ukraine House Foundation, the Embassy of Ukraine in the United States and the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, in 2022-2023 the Foundation provided laptops with software for 38,856 Ukrainian teachers from 12 regions.
Thanks to the support of the Embassy of Ukraine in South Korea, it was also possible to provide 500 schoolchildren with laptops.
In addition, 2,500 laptops are expected to arrive in cooperation with the UAE government.
Zelenska held a zoom meeting with Novikova, the teacher of one of the Kryvy Rih schools, who received a laptop within the framework of the Foundation's program.
"Amid constant Russian shelling of the city, the teacher gives her students the best, highest quality knowledge that will definitely be needed after the victory. But they are saving right now – because children learn to think, make decisions and just have fun despite the war. I'm glad she will now be able to give her exciting lessons with the help of high-quality equipment. And they would be transformed into the dreams and plans of many, many children," Zelenska said.
Currently, teachers in Ukraine need 81,309 laptops. First, teachers in the East and South (Kharkiv, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Odesa, part of Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhia regions) need equipment.
The students' need for devices is 526,839 units. In general, the situation of providing children with gadgets is critical. In most regions, the need is satisfied by 0-15%.
The Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine emphasizes the importance of involving partners, international and donor organizations in providing teachers with the necessary devices.
Deputy Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine for European Integration Yevhen Kudriavets said: "For teachers, it's not just a gadget – it's about the opportunity to teach and about the access to education for their students. Our team will continue work to restore the educational process. Access to education is a basic right of children, for which we are currently fighting amid challenges of war."