REPORTING. War in Ukraine: faced with Russian strikes, this Kharkiv school welcomes students into its fallout shelter
Cairo: Hani Kamal El-Din
In Ukraine, how can we continue to educate in cities targeted by Russian bombings? In Kharkiv, targeted daily by strikes, students have not returned to class for two years. All teaching is done remotely, online, with a few exceptions: there is an establishment in the city where children can still go to class, taking refuge in the school’s fallout shelter.
That morning, the director of this school, Svitlana Stankovich, greeted us apologetically: there was no power because of the latest strikes. But a moment later, his face lights up: “Here comes the light again“, she smiles.
To find the students, you have to go down to the basement and go through an airtight door. They are all there, divided into three classes in a row. On the program, Ukrainian lessons for older children, around ten 14-year-olds. “And on the big screen, on the wall, there are the students who are remotely, connecting, since the Internet has returned”specifies the director.
There were 700 students in this school before the war. There are only 250 of them left and they have been coming in turns for three months to this basement dating from the 1950s and completely renovated last winter. Caroline, 14, recognizes how lucky they are to have this solution, and thinks of the other children in Ukraine who can no longer go to class at all. “Coming back here is great, enthuses the schoolgirl. At least we can run around the school hallways a little. It’s always more fun than running alone, in your hallway, at home“, she laughs.
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