The Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported this week on a project that will bring new and innovative technologies to secondary schools throughout Ukraine.
The Open World project, which Ukraine officially rolled out yesterday, will be implemented in 704 schools around the country, including schools in rural areas.
The Interfax-Ukraine story lacks significant details regarding what exactly the program will entail, but any help rural schools can get is a step forward for education in Ukraine.
Many schools here lack what most would consider bare necessities – blackboards, chalk sticks, projectors, computers, Internet and even books enough for an entire class. In some 12 classrooms at a nearby village school, where I taught for 10 months, four were without chalkboards and all were without chalk sticks. Students actually went to local quarries to find pieces of calcium carbonate to use in their place.
Whatever the program provides to the secondary schools involved will no doubt be a big help. And hopefully in the not so distant future the rest of Ukraine’s public schools will receive the same assistance.