We believe in each and every one: A platform to help teenagers overcome educational gaps
Due to the full-scale invasion of Russia into Ukraine, over 4 million Ukrainian children are receiving education in between air raid alerts and searching for a safe place to stay. Such learning environments cause significant educational losses, which have a cumulative effect and are becoming an increasingly critical problem for Ukrainian families and the education sector.
Thus, overcoming educational losses requires comprehensive solutions that would compensate for gaps in skills and knowledge not just for a specific category of children or a class, but would become a tool for catching up on knowledge for the entire Ukrainian education system. This is why
ЕdCamp Ukraine NGO
together with relevant specialized state institutions is launching a pilot project on tutoring aimed at overcoming educational losses and gaps (POVIR).
POVIR
is an educational online platform designed to support students who have encountered challenges in their studies.
In this safe and friendly online space, middle and high school students learn with educators who have undergone special training to attentively address the unique needs of each student, helping children catch up on missed learning, reduce anxiety levels, overcome stress, support the development of life skills, and choose a better future.
During the pilot phase of the platform, children will have the opportunity to uplift three school subjects: mathematics, Ukrainian language, and English. One-to-one meetings between the child and the teacher are rooted in Social, Emotional and Ethical Learning (SEE Learning), as POVIR, in addition to academic abilities, aims to enhance stress resilience skills, foster communication and teamwork, develop creative and critical thinking, and improve the overall well-being of the child. SEE Learning – this is precisely what the New Ukrainian School is.
"In times of change, uncertainty, trauma, social-emotional skills are especially important, perhaps even more important than traditional skills. Navigating your life, being effective, having free will, and mobilizing your cognitive, social-emotional resources — such things are very important in time of crisis,"
says
Andreas Schleicher
, the PISA and SSES founder, Director for Education and Skills at the OECD, who accredited the POVIR platform.
The experience a child gets on the platform is gamified
. Students set records by overcoming challenges, for which they receive awards from adults and accumulate vircoins (unique POVIR currency) to exchange them for branded gifts or donate to those who need support during the war. The learning model combines Sprints and Marathons — two formats of student engagement with trainers in subjects, formats that rely on both short- and long-term motivation. Initially, children receive quick educational assistance for immediate needs such as homework or test preparation, and after the first successes, they can delve deeper – if they wish – into working on one of three subjects aimed at overcoming learning losses.
"Unfortunately, the full-scale invasion has added educational gaps to those already existing, including gaps in the quality of education in cities and villages. During this time, for example, we have added internally displaced children and children studying within the Ukrainian education system at occupied territories. While educational gaps relate to categories of children, educational losses are individual and indicate what each specific child has lost compared to their ideal self. Overcoming these losses and gaps will be best helped by motivated, conscious students who are ready to work towards results,"
notes Serhiy Koleboshyn, Deputy Head of the Committee on Education, Science, and Innovation of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
The project pilot will continue until the end of 2024 and will cover 2,000 children of various categories who are willing to improve their knowledge, for example, students from large cities and small settlements, from vulnerable groups, in particular, those who have lost relatives due to the war, children from families of internally displaced persons, defenders of Ukraine, students who are in de-occupied territories or those who live in areas of past / current conflict and combat operations, children who have left Ukraine because of the war, and others. This sample will allow for the evaluation of the project effectiveness and, if necessary, adjust the platform for operation on the national scale, for all grades and subjects. Children for piloting the platform were nominated by various non-government organizations, as well as government and diplomatic institutions that work with the respective categories of participants and are aware of their needs: Ukrainian Institute of Education Development, Voices of Children Foundation, Gen.Ukrainian NGO, IDPs of Ukraine NGO, School of Superheroes NGO, and others.
"We understand that due to various life circumstances which virtually every Ukrainian child now faces, the motivation to learn and discover something new might get lost among other challenges. However, we, the adults, should realize that childhood is limited in time, and therefore should guard and protect the happiness and young dreams of our children. We believe in their success, and most importantly — thanks to the POVIR platform, we help Ukrainian students believe in their own strength, in the ability to overcome challenges, improve, and achieve success,"
says
Oleksandr Elkin
, EdCamp Ukraine’s head of the board, member of the Presidential Advisory Council on the Development of the General Secondary Education System.
No person is born automatically resilient to stress, inherently empathetic, conscious, or kind. These qualities should be learned and mastered way before exams in school subjects. This represents a zone of proximal development for Ukrainian education, and consequently, for every Ukrainian child.
POVIR is implemented by the Ukrainian Institute of Education Development, EdCamp Ukraine NGO, Smart Osvita NGO, in cooperation with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, and commissioned by the government, namely the Committee on Science, Education and Innovation, the Presidential Advisory Council on the Development of the General Secondary Education System of Ukraine, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, and the All-Ukrainian School Online platform. Support is provided by the International Renaissance Foundation, the UN Fund Education Cannot Wait, the United States Agency for International Development, and international nonprofit PACT.
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