On April 27, there was an online meeting of the International Institute of Education, Culture and Diaspora Relations, Lviv Polytechnic National University, and the representatives of the Executive Committee of the Ukrainian World Congress: Yevgeniya Petrova, UWC Community Relations Coordinator, and Jaroszlava Hartyanyi, Member of the Executive Committee, the UWC, Chairman of the UWC Membership Committee, Chairman of the Ukrainian Culture Society in Hungary.
The conversation touched upon new challenges caused by the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. First of all, there were discussed the issues that arose due to the growing number of forced Ukrainian migrants, especially migrant women with children. Therefore, the UWC, as a coordinating superstructure of Ukrainian communities in 60 countries, is looking for effective ways to help this category of people, as well as ways to attract new migrants to civic engagement.
The key issue for discussion was the provision of the Ukrainian educational process and opportunities for study in Ukrainian studies schools abroad. According to Jaroszlava Hartyanyi, the policy of many European countries that currently accept Ukrainian forced migrants (including Hungary) is mostly aimed at the fast possible integration of Ukrainian children, rather than providing conditions for learning in Ukrainian. Therefore, expanding the network of Ukrainian studies schools abroad, creating Ukrainian classes at national schools is a priority for Ukrainian communities. «We have created a network of volunteer organizations and assistance points for Ukrainian refugees. Hundreds of Ukrainians come to us every day. We conduct monitoring surveys of their needs. It turned out that the main need of Ukrainian migrants is the education of their children. Schools are what they need most», stressed Jaroszlava Hartyanyi.
The participants of the meeting also stressed that Ukrainian schools abroad today need another help - educational and methodological support. Another aspect is the study of the Ukrainian language by adult migrants who spoke Russian in Ukraine. «I believe that IECDR textbooks, which reveal the history and culture of Ukraine, would be very useful for teaching this category, because by learning the language, Russian-speaking Ukrainians would get to know Ukraine better, get interested in its history and instill this interest in their children», noted Yevgeniya Petrova.
"We have created the Ukrainian Educational Universe portal - a map of Ukrainian studies institutions abroad, which can help forced migrants to find Ukrainian schools in different countries. The resource is freely available and we invite everyone to use it. Also on this resource, teachers can share information about their achievements, needs or share educational and methodological ideas. All this can help Ukrainian teachers who have just left the country and want to join the educational process. Our interactive educational portal Step to Ukraine also contains many free materials for learning the Ukrainian language and culture and is publicly available. We have a lot of developments that we would like to make freely available, but we need finances to complete them. Today, the war is forcing a change in the direction of funding, as all funds go to help the Armed Forces. However, we hope that we will be able to find opportunities to complete all the work to help Ukrainian schools abroad», said IECDR Director Iryna Kliuchkovska.
At the same time, an important challenge on the way to the development of Ukrainian education abroad is the intensification of the «Russian peace» and the creation of alternative schools with Russian language and culture. In general, the participants stressed the significant influence of the Russian information space and the need to hold regular actions to inform societies of different countries about the real situation in Ukraine, Russia's aggression and Moscow's policy: «We are breaking through the great wall here, we are fighting against strong Russian propaganda», stressed Jaroszlava Hartyanyi.
Yevgeniya Petrova and Jaroszlava Hartyanyi also underlined the exceptional role of IECDR in spreading knowledge about the Ukrainian diaspora in Ukraine.
At the end of the meeting, the participants thanked each other for the important work for the Ukrainian community, agreed to coordinate efforts and decided to hold a large-scale event on Ukrainian education abroad.