The Teach For Ukraine NGO, with the support of the international organization Save the Children and funding from the European Union, conducted a large-scale study on how students in grades 5–11 in selected communities of Mykolaiv and Kherson regions are catching up on their learning losses.
The target audience of the study included participants of the educational process, such as school principals, teachers, and representatives of local self-government education departments.
The research shows that educators in Kherson and Mykolaiv regions, despite extremely difficult conditions, continue to teach and to develop schools for the sake of children and their learning process. What’s more, they not only address fundamental safety issues, but also focus on broader priorities, such as inclusive education, rewarding students for academic and creative achievements, integrating Social and Emotional and Ethical Learning (SEEL) principles into the learning process, and much more. Among these efforts, overcoming learning losses is defined as a strategic priority for schools.
“Frontline regions are a priority for Teach For Ukraine, since it is here that children, due to constant air raids, hostilities, and stress, have been unable to study consistently for years, and teachers are forced to constantly invent new ways to sustain students’ faith in the power of education. To more effectively address the issue of learning recovery in Mykolaiv and Kherson regions, our team initiated this research. We hope it will serve as a foundation for deep strategic work to ensure an adequate level of knowledge among children in the region, as well as a resource for creating effective mechanisms to support education,”
— Anastasiia Donska, Head of Learning Recovery at Teach For Ukraine
Full text of the study:
The study was carried out within the project “Ukrainian Consortium for Education Response: Safe Return to Learning” implemented by Teach For Ukraine with the support of Save the Children and funding from the European Union. The project aims to help educators in frontline and de-occupied regions restore the educational process and integrate tools for addressing learning losses into the daily work of schools.
Currently, 12 schools from Mykolaiv and Kherson regions are participating in the pilot project. Together with Teach For Ukraine experts, these schools have developed learning recovery strategies and step-by-step action plans until the end of the academic year. More than one hundred teachers from these regions have successfully completed training in the tutoring approach and received tools for diagnosing and addressing learning losses.
“Teach For Ukraine is working to tackle this problem in Kherson and Mykolaiv regions — areas that have been especially affected by the war. We see how children’s learning losses become real challenges for communities and schools. But this is not only about math knowledge or writing skills. It is also about the loss of trust, motivation, and the feeling that tomorrow will come,”
— Inna Stepanets, Project Manager
