Age: 26
Education: Oles Honchar Dnipro National University, Open International University of Human Development “Ukraine;” doctoral studies at the Institute of Literature at the National Academy of Science.
Profession: Teacher of Ukrainian language, literature and computer science
Did you know? He became a teacher to be different from a schoolteacher who assaulted children.
For Oleksandr Cherkas, his path to the teaching profession started with protest. He didn’t like one of his teachers, who beat children and poorly knew the subjects she taught.
“I wanted to become a teacher in order to teach in a different way,” he said.
Cherkas grew up and went to school in a village in southern Kherson Oblast which lacked teachers. He wanted to prove that teachers could be different.
His parents were against the idea because of the poor pay that teachers receive. So he enrolled at teacher training college in Dnipro without telling them at first. He chose to become a teacher of Ukrainian language and literature because he knew less about these subjects than others and wanted to know them better.
Cherkas continued his studies at Dnipropetrovsk State University, but in his second year he started working at a school. He chose a rural village school near Kyiv, an area where many young teachers refuse to work because of low pay and poor infrastructure.
“I was eager to start working at a school, and in a village school they could take me without a completed university degree,” he said.
Then he taught at a boarding school for children with musculoskeletal disorders. Apart from the Ukrainian language, he taught computer science and developed programs for his students to master the computer considering their special needs.
“My uncle had cerebral palsy, I knew what it is and wasn’t afraid to work with children who live with it, though many other teachers are,” he said.
Now Cherkas works with students with special needs, teaching them in an inclusive class in a Kyiv school. He also taught the Ukrainian language and literature for children with HIV at the Okhmatdyt children’s hospital in Kyiv, part of the School of Superheroes, an educational project.
His teaching method focuses on getting children interested in a subject, bringing more freedom to class rules and applying modern technologies. His students send him the poems they recite on Viber, do homework online, film video blogs and use Instagram stories for classes.
Cherkas also teaches through traveling. He organizes trips with his students around Ukraine, where they learn about Ukrainian writers while visiting museums and other places linked to them. He also invites modern Ukrainian writers to visit his classes.
“I’m teaching children and I’m learning together with them,” he said.
His efforts have been rewarded. In 2017 and 2018, his students nominated him for the Global Teacher Prize of Ukraine, referred to as “the Oscars of teaching.” In 2018, he was selected as one of the country’s 10 best teachers.
His pay is low. Cherkas makes about $400 per month, but he doesn’t complain. “First, let’s wait until the war comes to an end and then we’ll see what can be done here,” he said.
Along with teaching, he still studies in a doctoral course at the National Academy of Science’s Institute of Literature.
Cherkas sees bullying as a big problem today, and he conducts prevention trainings. In late December, Cherkas will travel for six months to Latvia to teach the Ukrainian language at a local school, funded by a grant from the Ministry of Education.
Upon return, he hopes to either open his own private school or apply to be a school principal in a remote village.
“I would create a happy, inclusive school there,” he said.
