Age: 27
Education: Bohdan Khmelnytskyi Melitopol State Pedagogical University
Profession: Primary school teacher
Did you know? During the quarantine he started baking cakes, and now even takes orders and sells them.
Andrey Oleynik has always known that his mission in life is to teach children. It was clear for him right from the very first lesson in elementary school, when he was just a kid.
Two decades later, in 2020, working as a primary teacher in the city of Kamianske in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Oleynik gained fame that he had never dreamed of before — he won the annual national award Global Teacher Prize Ukraine in the category of “choice of Ukrainians” after over 40,000 people out of 110,000 voted for him.
But this would never have happened if Oleynik hadn’t followed his dream. His parents, at first, were against their son’s desire to become a teacher and insisted on choosing another profession, such as a manager. So Oleynik worked as an administrator in different places like in a hotel or in a wellness center, but he “wasn’t happy at all while doing that job.”
At the age of 24, he made a fateful decision and this time no one could change his mind. Oleynik entered Pedagogical University and started working as a teacher. He still remembers his first working day like it was yesterday.
“I realized that it’s the place where I belong,” said Oleynik.
Now, teaching 30 kids in the same school where Oleynik himself used to study many years ago makes him full of joy.
“This is an incredible process,” said Oleynik. “Children feel everything — if a person comes to them with love, they pay back with the same feelings.”
He believes that today’s children are very different from previous generations and the ways of giving them knowledge should be much more creative, not only from books.
“A system that previously existed no longer works. You have to develop as a teacher,” he said.
During the lessons, Oleynik utilizes Lego sets, animations, sings, he even dances with kids, so that even learning boring information turns into an interesting process. It helps children to achieve better results and gives a positive attitude for life in the future, he believes.
“Not everybody has to become mathematicians or philologists, the main thing is that kids can feel happy here and now at school, especially at primary school, when their first skills are discovered,” said Oleynik.
But no matter how big is his love for the profession, Oleynik is upset about the lack of prestige of teachers’ work in Ukraine. As a result, not so many young people want to start their career in this sphere. Moreover, when young teachers come to school, older colleagues often don’t take them seriously; sometimes young professionals can even be bullied by the administration.
“Many of them see such a mess and leave their job after one month of work,” said Oleynik. “It’s a problem.”
When his current students go to secondary school next year, Oleynik won’t take a new class. His plan is much more ambitious — the teacher wants to become the school’s principal.
“I have strength, desire and motivation to do much more — to lead, develop, and motivate other teachers,” said Oleynik.
