© UNHCR/Iryna Tymchyshyn
Kyiv, 4 December: Oksen Lisovyi, Minister for Education and Science of Ukraine, and Karolina Lindholm Billing, Representative of UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, in Ukraine, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding.
The memorandum highlights the importance of access to education for internally displaced Ukrainians, returnees, other war-affected individuals, as well as stateless people and refugees in Ukraine alike.
More than 600 days after Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, the level of displacement within and beyond Ukraine remains immense. Close to 4 million people are estimated to be internally displaced within Ukraine’s borders, while more than 6.3 million Ukrainians are recorded as refugees across Europe and beyond.
As the war continues, causing civilian casualties and severe damage to homes, infrastructure and community facilities, it currently remains impossible for many displaced people to return to their home communities. It is therefore vital to ensure access to school for displaced children – as key to safeguarding their learning and development – and to not risk further disruptions to their education.
UNHCR continuously highlights the right to education for all, including displaced children and youth, and contributes to the collective efforts, led by the Government of Ukraine and the Ministry of Education and Science, through several of our programmes in Ukraine: reconstruction and refurbishment of schools and educational facilities; provision of emergency shelter kits for schools and kindergartens, impacted by strikes and shelling; and setting up of educational and recreational spaces for children in collective sites, to name a few.
Also, UNHCR continues to advocate for the recognition of diplomas and education received elsewhere, and the memorandum signed effectively affirms the essential recognition of education and qualifications of returnees, refugees aligned with other residents of Ukraine, as a way to ensure integration, inclusion and durable solutions.
© UNHCR/Iryna Tymchyshyn
© UNHCR/Iryna Tymchyshyn
© UNHCR/Iryna Tymchyshyn
The memorandum also provides a joint plan to identify and refurbish dormitories of educational facilities to be used as a temporary housing solution for internally displaced people. So far, more than 65 dormitories of educational facilities have been refurbished, or are in the process for being refurbished, by UNHCR and its partners, including in Dnipro, Poltava, Kharkiv and Lviv.
“Millions of Ukrainians have been forced from their homes due to the war, which has also left so many homes inhabitable or completely destroyed. I am happy that by this memorandum, together with the Ministry, we have agreed on the refurbishment of dormitories connected to educational facilities, which will provide dignified accommodation for internally displaced people in Ukraine,” says UNHCR’s Representative for Ukraine, Karolina Lindholm Billing.
“We also agreed during our meeting today to increase our cooperation to disseminate information about educational platforms and tools available for Ukrainian refugee children abroad, which have been developed by the Ministry to enable these children to keep up the learning of key Ukrainian subjects while attending school in their host country.”
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