Lithuania will build underground schools in Mykolaiv Oblast and 5 other regions: work is promised to be completed by the end of the year

Lithuania plans to build a shelter school in the Mykolaiv region by the end of 2024. Similar underground institutions should appear in 5 more regions of Ukraine.

Arturas Zharnovskis, the head of the Lithuanian reconstruction program «Co-create Future of Ukraine», told about this in an interview with Ukrinform.

As you know, on the initiative of Lithuania, an architectural competition «Future School for Ukraine» was announced in Ukraine, which entered the decisive stage. During this time, a school in Borodianka and a kindergarten in Irpin, Kyiv region, were rebuilt.

Currently, the program is working on the implementation of the project in the Mykolaiv region.

«We are engaged in a large project in the Mykolaiv region and other regions that are not far from the front and are constantly under fire. There will be safe shelter schools for wartime. In peacetime, shelters can be used as multifunctional premises (sports, entertainment, etc.),» Arturas Zharnovskis said.

The facilities will appear in the Mykolaiv, Odesa, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy and Chernihiv regions.

«One more object, we are deciding where exactly — probably in the Kharkiv region. What is the idea? In some Ukrainian regions, children cannot go to school due to the full-scale war. This is a huge problem. And if we also recall the previous Covid-19 restrictions, it turns out that this is already the fourth school year when children do not go to school. Imagine, there are fourth-graders who have not physically been to school at all. Normal school, not online. Therefore, we are starting to build large bomb shelter schools in the named regions. And this is construction «from scratch», in places where, unfortunately, there were no shelters before. Among other things, the safety conditions in such underground facilities will include, just in case, anti-radiation protection... I think we will be able to finish this construction already this year,» said the official.

To be honest, I have heard many myths about bureaucracy, corruption and other negative things in Ukraine. But I personally have not encountered this. And I think that the level of those people with whom we contacted during the work is very high. We ourselves have a lot to learn from them: efficiency, motivation, professionalism. Therefore, we did not see any big problems, on the contrary, sometimes we had to catch up... This does not mean that there are no problems at all in working contact. There are But there is a feeling that we are in the same boat and have to solve everything somehow.

«In these regions that I mentioned to you, from Odesa and Mykolaiv to Sumy and Chernihiv, I met professional people everywhere who work quickly and professionally at the local level. Also, I can only say good things about your institutions. But if we are talking about the construction itself, then there are many objective problems. In the second winter of the war, with the labor force, in connection with mobilization; the first winter there were big problems with electricity,» added the head of the program.

We will remind you that the Deputy Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine Mykhailo Vynnytskyi spoke earlier about the construction of underground schools in the Mykolaiv region. This is necessary for the transition of children to offline education, so as not to lose students.

Such a school for 500 students will be built in nearby Kherson. Project and estimate documentation is currently being developed.

How do children study in frontline cities?

As you know, a similar project for the construction of an underground school was implemented in Kharkiv. The building is built according to the highest safety standards, has 20 classrooms and is designed to accommodate 900 students in two shifts. In general, distance, offline and mixed forms of education operate in the city.

At the end of March, for the first time since the beginning of the full-scale war, 24 schools in Zaporizhzhia returned to the mixed education format. Schools in Dnipro also operate in a mixed format.

And in Odesa, in 2024, almost all educational institutions will work full-time.

What about children's education in Mykolaiv?

Mykolaiv schoolchildren have been studying online since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation. Although the government, with the help of donors and the state, is actively setting up shelters in educational institutions, which sometimes causes indignation among the townspeople.

The refusal of children to go to school is a guarantee of their personal safety, because Mykolaiv is still in the zone of possible ballistic damage from the Russian military, says Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych. At the same time, he emphasizes the importance of preparing shelters and resuming education in schools when the Armed Forces move the front line.

Currently, shelters have been installed in 37 educational institutions out of 142 schools and kindergartens in Mykolaiv. At the end of December 2023, the commission recommended the opening of seven more educational institutions with shelters.

In the next few years, the authorities plan to equip 54 shelters in kindergartens, schools and lyceums in Mykolaiv.

We will remind, this year the outflow of students was recorded in the schools of Mykolaiv. Compared to the last academic year , the number of schoolchildren decreased by 3,300. Vitalii Kim, the head of Mykolaiv RMA, explained that the city's schools work online because they are still targets for the Russian army. Vitalii Kim also explained that the decision on the offline operation of the city's schools will be made by the Office of the President and the Ministry of Education.

Where in Mykolaiv Oblast is there offline education?

57 educational institutions were allowed to work offline in the Mykolaiv region. Most of them are schools of Voznesensk and Pervomaysk districts. In addition, 94 schools work mixed, that is, children study offline in a certain order, for example, one week after another. Another 277 educational institutions work online.

It was also possible to organize an offline educational process in the front-line Ochakiv, which is still in the zone of damage by the enemy's anti-aircraft missile system. There is a mixed form of education.

According to the monitoring of the Department of Education of the Mykolaiv City Council, 65% of schoolchildren want to study full-time.