The First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska joined online the International Presentation of the results of the Survey on Social and Emotional Skills (SSES 2023) that took place in Bulgaria. The Survey is conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to improve understanding of school students' skills.
Students from sixteen countries, including Ukraine, took part in the Survey. The results showed that 15-year-old girls in our country have lower levels of stress resistance, emotion control, energy, trust, and self-control than boys. At the same time, 15-year-old boys have lower levels of empathy, tolerance, achievement motivation, responsibility, sociability, and creativity than girls, on average.
“The war is also terrible because it is like a time machine but with reverse mode only. It throws the country and people back in their development. We already knew from previous studies that the quality of our students' knowledge and the amount of material they had learned was affected by the invasion. This is one more proof of how destructive war and aggression are. It destroys not just at the physical level, but also at the psychological one,” the President's wife noted.
She thanked the survey organizers and suggested ways to improve the situation.
“I am sure that in order to help children, adults themselves need to have the appropriate skills and expertise. We need nationwide projects for the social and emotional development of both students and teachers. For example, the Social, Emotional and Ethical Learning program offered by EdCamp Ukraine — which, by the way, is mentioned in the survey as a separate Ukrainian case. I hope there will be others,” Olena Zelenska said.
The First Lady emphasized that Ukraine chose both fight and development for itself and its people, and it will continue to follow this path.
Reference. The Survey of Social and Emotional Skills involves students aged 10 to 15. They are evaluated on various social and emotional skills: task performance skills (persistence, responsibility, self-control and achievement motivation); emotional regulation skills (stress-resistance, emotional control and optimism); engaging with others skills (assertiveness, sociability and energy); open-mindedness skills (curiosity, creativity and tolerance); and collaboration skills (empathy and trust).