IMPACT ON STUDENTS
Some teachers said the war’s escalation has had a bigger impact on older students, who are more aware of the situation.
Student Mariia Chaikina said: “It’s much easier to live in war with your friends, with someone who can support you and with someone who understands you. Because I think only Ukrainians can understand me at all.”
According to the United Nations, some 1.5 million children in Ukraine are at risk of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety and other mental health conditions.
World Vision estimates that about 25 per cent of children do not have access to schooling.
World Vision Ukraine’s country response director Catherine Green said: “Once you have children disengaged from schooling, the knock-on effects are significant in terms of their mental health and psychosocial wellbeing, in terms of their ongoing learning, in terms of their ongoing ability to contribute to the rebuilding of this country once peace arrives.”
With millions of Ukrainians displaced, many children are being forced to continue their studies in new communities and often in new languages, said observers.
Educators said students can adapt quickly to these extraordinary circumstances, but they hope this lesson in resilience will soon be over.
