In Malyn, an extracurricular education school damaged in a Russian bombing attack at the beginning of the full-scale war reopened its doors, enabling nearly 400 children to continue taking part in extracurricular activities. The EDUHUB opened in Zhytomyr, meanwhile, gives nearly 4,000 early childhood education teachers access to modern teaching practices. ESTDEV designed both projects so that their impact would extend beyond individual buildings and institutions and create models that could also be used in other regions of Ukraine.
“Alongside military, financial and political support for Ukraine, it is also important to invest in Ukraine’s future. Tanks help Ukraine defend its freedom today, but education helps build the country Ukrainians are fighting for. Both the EDUHUB education centre and the Malyn extracurricular education school are laying the foundations for educating the generations that will shape Ukraine’s future,” Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said.
With an investment of nearly €2.4 million from ESTDEV, the war-damaged building of the Malyn extracurricular education school was restored, while the school’s curriculum, teachers’ skills and institutional management were also updated in cooperation with Estonian experts. Nearly 1,000 young people, teachers and parents were involved in the development of the Malyn school. Teachers also took part in training courses and study visits to Estonia to learn about modern teaching methods. Both teachers and parents were able to participate in trauma-awareness training to better support children and young people affected by the war.
The EDUHUB early childhood education competence centre opened in Zhytomyr gives more than 4,000 kindergarten teachers in the Zhytomyr region access to support in applying modern teaching practices. The centre was established with the support of ESTDEV, Liechtenstein and the City of Tallinn, in cooperation with Zhytomyr City Council and the Tallinn Teachers’ House.
“When rebuilding Ukraine, it is not enough simply to restore buildings damaged by the war. Alongside rebuilding the physical environment, we must also strengthen the people, institutions and systems that help society recover from the crisis, continue developing and prepare for accession to the European Union. Both the Malyn extracurricular education school and EDUHUB are good examples of how infrastructure reconstruction and substantive development can go hand in hand,” said Andrea Kivi, Executive Director of the Estonian Centre for International Development (ESTDEV).
