Metro classrooms and even underground schools are now operating due to the constant air strikes in the city of Kharkiv. In August 2024 alone, Russia used about 350-400 Shahed drones to attack the city. These massive strikes targeted critical infrastructure and residential areas.
Despite this, on September 1, 2024, four more school classes opened at one of Kharkiv’s metro stations. Around 1,000 students from grades 1 to 10 from five city lyceums will study there. The classrooms, rest areas, educational equipment, and medical room were all provided by the project "Strengthening Urban Resilience in Ukraine (SUR)". In addition to desks, chairs, and furniture, all the classrooms are equipped with interactive school boards, which were not available in regular schools before.
"As a teacher, this board is like a magic wand for me because it allows for interactive work with the children. In fact, students can use it too. You can display presentations, textbooks, notebooks, and even animated characters," says Taisia Galkova, a primary school teacher at Kharkiv Lyceum №14. "First graders especially enjoy it, and it helps them grasp the material better. This format of learning is closer to them."
The "Strengthening Urban Resilience in Ukraine (SUR)" project also fully equipped an metro school's play area with soft furniture, board games, and everything necessary. All students use it after their 35-minute lessons.
The local Department of Education representative explains that the demand for offline learning is constantly growing in the city. The local authorities are expanding the number of metro schools to allow more students to attend in person. Parents also prefer in-person education, and there has been no return to online learning since the metro schools began.
This activity was realized by the project "Strengthening Urban Resilience in the Areas of Supply Infrastructure and Housing in Ukraine (SUR)" which is a part of the German transitional development assistance, commissioned by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by GIZ Ukraine.
#GIZ