Provide Chest for Shelter to 10 Ukrainian Schools

Mental health and Psychosocial support have been in great need in Ukrainian schools since the full-scale invasion of Russia into Ukraine in February 2022. 

For example, Smart Osvita, jointly with the “Democratic Initiatives Foundation,” conducted research to assess secondary school teachers' needs. The research participants were teachers of the 5th to 6th grades who work within the New Ukrainian School reform and teach in the 7th to 11th grades as well. 

The research data showed that:

-       78% of the teachers surveyed noticed an increase in anxiety, fear, sadness, or anger compared to the period before the full-scale invasion. 

-       Some respondents noticed states that could negatively affect their teaching and student interaction. Thus, almost 40% of the surveyed teachers noticed irritability, and 31% of respondents reported low motivation to work. According to the respondents' self-assessment, 28% of teachers have low concentration. Other factors hindering teaching children include difficulty memorizing and recalling new information. They were noticed by 18% and 13% of respondents, respectively. At the same time, 23% of teachers are vulnerable to criticism from others, which can exacerbate conflict situations when students correct teachers in class.

-       Among 69.5% of the surveyed teachers, there is a request for advanced training in providing first psychological aid to themselves or students. Of these, 43% want to learn more about giving first aid to themselves and their students, 16.5% want to improve their knowledge of providing first aid to students, and the remaining 10% feel the need to improve their skills in providing first aid to themselves. 

Currently, the Smart Osvita team is working on developing the program for school psychologists and the online course targeting their primary needs in defining the states of students and addressing them.

However, the team already planned the 500 teachers' training schedule because we received a generous donation enabling this work.

The training themselves will be conducted in March-April. A detailed update on them will be provided in the next report. Thank you for enabling it!