BRIEFING—Generation Victory: How Ukraine is Educating Students in Wartime

Rayburn House Office Building, Room 2247
Stream live here

Russia is attempting to demoralize and destroy Ukrainian culture and society, including by deliberately attacking civilian institutions such as schools and universities. Ukraine's human rights commissioner reports that nearly five thousand educational institutions have been damaged and nearly five hundred destroyed since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion. Bombing attacks on printing and logistics sites this summer destroyed nearly 1.2 million textbooks. UNICEF reports that 4.6 million children are facing barriers to education including air-raid alerts and strikes that keep students in shelters or at home, close schools, and halt in-person and online learning. 

At the same time, from the Covid pandemic through Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukrainian universities, schools, and students are adapting and evolving to meet the challenge. Displaced universities have moved to Kyiv and created communities to serve academics and students living in exile. Volunteers and students are addressing gaps in education and preparing Ukraine’s young people for success in the work force. Technical and vocational schools are anticipating supporting the reintegration of Ukrainian military veterans. Ukraine’s education of its young people is central to its resistance to Russia’s genocidal pressure, and Ukraine’s hard-won experience provides lessons in the role of education as the foundation of freedom.

Panelists:
 
Natalia Etten, advisory board member and former CEO, Teach for Ukraine

Archbishop-Metropolitan Borys Gudziak, president of the Ukrainian Catholic University

Oksana Nechyporenko, co-founder, Go Global and non-resident senior fellow, Atlantic Council

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