ORGANISATION OF PRIMARY EDUCATION AT WAR IN UKRAINE: RESULTS OF A SURVEY OF PRIMARY EDUCATION SPECIALISTS

Abstract

The article presents the results of a survey of primary education specialists on the organization of primary school education in the period after the beginning of Russia’s fullscale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022 and May 31, 2022 (the official end of the 2021–2022 academic year). The survey was conducted by scholars of the Institute of Pedagogy of the National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine. The article is based on the legislative and regulatory documents governing the legal regime of martial law in Ukraine and the peculiarities of the functioning of the Ukrainian education system during this period; analytical works, including the author’s own, on the organization of education under martial law; characteristics of primary education: The guidelines of international organizations on the organization of education in times of war were also taken into account. The results of the survey showed that primary education in Ukraine continued to function after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia, despite serious challenges (destruction or damage to educational institutions due to bombing and shelling, forced displacement of teachers and parents with children, numerous psychological traumas of teachers and children, occupation of part of the territory of Ukraine and genocide of the Ukrainian people in the occupied territories). This became possible both due to the creation of the foundations of institutional and legal regulation of the educational sphere for the period of martial law by the Ukrainian authorities, and to the specialists of primary education: their civic position, moral responsibility, professional qualifications. The conclusions developed on the basis of the respondents’ answers outline possible options for organizing primary education in war conditions. The relevance of further development of the distance learning format in Ukraine under martial law and the implementation of a systemic policy of the authorities to support teachers, which should include both psychological support and the development of methodological support for teaching in war conditions, emphasized.

Keywords

• ukraine, war, primary education, primary education specialists, survey, organisational conditions, perspectives