Shells exploded meters from a school in Donetsk, killing 10 people, including teachers and parents who had come to bring their children to the first day of school on Oct. 1, according to Agence France-Presse.
Local activists and bloggers said that the trajectory of the shell could be traced back to the separatist-controlled area. On the same day, the authorities of the
self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic ordered schools in the
war-torn region to reopen.
But Ukraine’s Education Ministry said they were against the idea, despite a proclaimed
cease-fire since Sept. 5, which has been violated every day.
“Our position is that it
is too dangerous to have children in an area, where active fighting
is going on,” Ukrainian Minister of Education and Science Serhiy
Kvit told the Kyiv Post, likening the situation to the 2004 Breslan
school hostage crisis in Russia that left 330 people dead.
The school year usually
begins on Sep. 1 in the former Soviet Union, but because of ongoing
fighting officials of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic
pushed back the first day of classes.
This video of victims of Oct. 1 shelling in Donetsk was taken in Kyivskiy district of the city.
In September, the separatist republic’s Ministry of Education told teachers to report to work if they wished
to keep their jobs and began paying teachers who had not received a
salary since June.
The DNR also begun paying
pensions to the disabled and families who have lost their primary
earners as it shifts from focusing exclusively on fighting Ukrainian
forces to trying to provide services once provided but he Ukrainian
state.
In Donetsk there are many
schools rendered unusable by artillery with many more that have been
partially damaged or had windows blown out by the boom of mortars. A
total of 168 school have been damaged in eastern Ukraine since
fighting began, according to information gathered by UNICEF from the
Ukrainian Ministry of Education and Science.
Both sides have used
unguided artillery in the conflict, inflicting civilian casualties,
damaging buildings, and shattering glass. There are still regular
artillery exchanges between Ukrainian forces and Russia-supported
separatists despite a cease-fire agreement concluded between the
Ukrainian government and separatist leaders last month.
The Ukrainian ministry of
education and science has worked to relocate universities from
territory held by the DNR and Luhansk People’s Republic to
facilities in western ad central Ukraine, but schools provide a more
challenging problem.
“We understand you can’t
simply relocate all of the schools and school children,” said Kvit.
Since fighting broke out, schools on the territory of the DNR and Luhansk People’s Republic have been cut off from
funding.
“We have incurred a lot
of debts since July,” said Tatiana Archipova, director of Boarding
School for Children with Learning Disabilities number 28 in the
Petrovksy district of Donetsk, which has seen heavy shelling. “Many
of our students come from poorer families and they keep asking me
when the school and cafeteria will open again,” she added.
On Sep. 25, the DNR
officials began paying teachers and professors, driving bags of
Ukrainian currency to schools and universities to distribute to
teachers who had stayed in or returned to the area.
In an apparent response to
the move, the Ukrainian government issued a decree on education
financing in separatist-controlled territories. If the measure
is enacted, however, it is unclear how teachers in those areas would
collect their salaries as payment is usually transferred to
bank accounts and nearly all banks and ATMs in the area are not
operating, teachers in Donetsk said.
But the most pressing
concern at the moment remains security. In recent weeks an increasing
number of people have returned to Donetsk, creating a need for
schools as well as work for teachers.
Where Ukrainian
authorities have insisted that schools should not be operating,
separatist officials have reopened facilities despite lack of
security guarantees. Also, the schools are in poor shape.
“Parents want to help
rebuild the school, but it is too dangerous. The children cry over
the phone and tell me how they want to come back,” said Alexandra
Larichova, a teacher at Boarding School for Children with Learning
Disabilities number 28.
