Last Bell
Last Bell, a traditional ceremony in many post-Soviet countries that celebrates the end of the academic school year and marks the beginning of summer vacation. Although the specific date of the ceremony may vary depending on the country, it is always carried out at the end of May. Since the May weather is usually bright and full of sunny days, many schools in these former Soviet republics often hold the ceremony in the schoolyard. Some activities that take place include: speeches by the school directors and faculty; dances performed by different students (mainly the graduating high school class); poems recited by students; and, of course, the ceremonial Last Bell, which is rung by one or several students, depending on the school or the country. The nature of the ceremony makes it a very happy and memorable experience. Students and faculty members look forward to the summer break, and high school graduates reflect on their final days in school before entering university or starting a new chapter in their lives as they move directly into the workforce.
Like many former Soviet countries, Ukraine upholds the happy tradition of the Last Bell. Students typically celebrate the Last Bell by dressing up, with the graduating class all wearing special graduation sashes and jumping into fountains. As tradition dictates, the smallest student from the primary school climbs onto the shoulder of the tallest student from the high school to ring the ceremonial Last Bell. The tall student walks them around the schoolyard as the students, faculty, and proud parents take photos and videos. This year, Last Bell fell on Friday, May 27th in Ukraine, but it was not the typical happy occasion that Ukrainian teachers and families are accustomed to. In the midst of the war, millions of Ukrainian children have been forced from their homes, with many schools along the front lines being reduced to rubble. Those schools in the more secure parts of the country are still burdened with constant air raid sirens, which interrupt lessons frequently.
With many schools across the country unable to function normally and millions of children living abroad, most Ukrainian schools celebrated the Last Bell by holding virtual ceremonies online, with many children signing on from abroad where their families have fled to escape the violence. In east Ukraine, local officials lamented that instead of the joyous sound of the Last Bell, children in this region were hearing gunfire and explosions.
“The Last Bell did not ring today in the Luhansk region,” Serhiy Hadai, the head of the Luhansk region’s military administration, wrote on his Facebook page. “Those children who still remain in the area’s bomb shelters listened to the cannonade.”
According to Hadai, schools across Luhansk have been reduced to “empty brick boxes” with the wind whistling through shattered windows and desks scorched down to their metal frames. This is a result of the region being on the verge of total Russian occupation, as Ukrainian forces continue to make their last stand in the city of the Sievierodonetsk.
Since Russia launched its invasion on February 24th, parents and teachers have been scrambling to provide education for school-aged children across Ukraine through a mix of online and in-person lessons, even makeshift classrooms in subway stations where civilians have taken shelter from Russian bombardment. According to various experts, even a small semblance of continued schooling can help provide children with some stability, as well as an outlet to process trauma. Despite the war, the Ukrainian Ministry of Education still planned on carrying out the Last Bell ceremony through whatever means necessary. In his speech for the virtual ceremony, Serhiy Shkarlet, the education minister, reflected on the innocent lives that were lost:
“Despite the war, the Last Bell will ring. But it will not be heard by those children and teachers who were killed by the Russian occupiers. We will always remember you.”
Educating abroad
For millions of refugee families, maintaining consistent schooling for their children was a top priority after fleeing Ukraine. While many schools across Europe have welcomed Ukrainian children with open arms, there continue to be severe challenges with integrating Ukrainian students, such as dealing with language barriers, PTSD, and culture shock. Many countries have programs in place to help integrate foreigners into their national education systems. For instance, in Portugal, international students can enroll in pre-kindergarten classes directly, while older students can go through an assessment or transition process. In the case of Ukrainian children, the goal is to integrate them as soon as possible.
In a similar vein, Belgium, Denmark, France, Lithuania, Slovakia, and Spain all mentioned ‘bridging,’ ‘reception,’ and ‘adaptation’ classes. These types of transition classes include language classes, cultural integration, familiarization with the local education system, psychological counseling and support, and evaluation of competencies. The idea is that students can strengthen their skills in the local language and get evaluated, and then they can be integrated into regular classes. Meanwhile, some countries offer public education with instruction in Ukrainian, such as Romania, which has 45 primary schools and ten high schools with the option for Ukrainian students to study in their native language.
Some other examples of refugee support and integration include Croatia, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia, which have handbooks on how to protect pupils’ mental health, prevent conflict in classes, and talk about sensitive topics. Meanwhile, in France, a Ukraine ‘crisis unit’ was created in Paris, which provides teachers with an online pamphlet outlining how to welcome students who have suffered trauma.
For international agencies like UNESCO, strengthening distance learning has been a priority. After the invasion started, UNESCO announced that it would mobilize support for online learning through its Global Education Coalition, which was created in 2020 to facilitate distance learning solutions during the COVID-19 pandemic. The organization has been providing computer hardware and digital learning tools to refugee children.
According to UNESCO, every humanitarian crisis is also an education crisis, and since the beginning of the invasion, they have been mapping how host countries are supporting and providing education to Ukrainian refugees. This initiative also allows host countries to take count of the measures taken to integrate and support Ukrainian learners and teachers fleeing the war, including international students enrolled in Ukrainian higher education institutions who have also fled. The goal is to promote the exchange of good practices and facilitate common approaches to support the education of all Ukraine refugees.
Educating online
While EU member states and organizations like UNESCO have taken great steps towards providing refugees with the education resources that they need, the situation varies drastically depending on the host country and the refugee families’ individual circumstances. Then there are students who continue their classes through their Ukrainian schools online. There are multiple reasons why many Ukrainians study online as opposed to enrolling in a local school, such as: a sense of familiarity and stability studying with their Ukrainian teachers and classmates, albeit virtually; not having the opportunities to enroll in local schools within their host countries; and, of course, avoiding issues with language barriers. As the COVID-19 pandemic illustrated, there are several benefits to distance learning, especially with the use of modern online classrooms and teleconference apps like Zoom. However, distance learning is far from an ideal option for many Ukrainian refugees.
As our citizen journalist, Katya described her family’s life in Cyprus during the war, having her daughter Alisa continue her classes online through her Ukrainian school was the best option because she does not know Greek, which would have made it impossible to function in the local schools. There was also the option for Alisa to enroll in an international English school in Cyprus, since she knows some English, but this was also not ideal because, according to Katya, these schools are very expensive. Though online Ukrainian classes were her daughter’s best option, Katya expressed her concerns with distance learning: “It's frustrating because I'm really for offline schooling and kids physically going to school rather than just sitting in front of their laptops. I understand it's still studying, but it's not truly what it should be.”
While there were a host of challenges prevalent with distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the unique challenges present in a wartime setting is the frequent interruption of online lessons due to air raid sirens and the risk of being attacked in the middle of a lesson. As Katya described, “Whenever the sirens start, the students say, ‘Sorry, I need to get to a safer place. I need to go hide somewhere.’ So they leave class. The same is happening with the kids and their teachers.” In the final month before the Ukrainian school year ended, some cities and communities may have seen less frequent air attack warnings as the state of the war developed and Russian forces were pushed back to the eastern regions of Ukraine. However, for many students and teachers, this continued to present a challenge to online education as the school year ended.
Even though the Ukrainian school year has come to an end and summer break has officially started, the question of providing stable and quality education to Ukrainian children, whether at home or abroad, continues to be a significant concern as the war drags on into the summer months.