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The school you won’t recognize now

18/01/2022

Secondary school No. 15 in Melitopol, Zaporizhzhia Oblast, was built back in 1974, and since then, for decades, it had not undergone any major refurbishments. Up until 2020, when the learning institution was chosen one of the projects for modernization under the Ukraine Early Recovery Programme, which is financed by the European Investment Bank (EIB).

“The school has transformed entirely. Modern conditions for learning that help uncover the potential of students and pushes them to new discoveries and achievements have been created”, says Viktor Hostishchev, computer science teach commenting on the results of modernization. “The teachers now have an opportunity to introduce new forms and methods of learning. This fosters revival and sustainable development of our region”.

The list of the change is impressive not only to the students and teachers, but also entirely unrelated people.

The classrooms now look updated and technically equipped, with mobile desks, chairs and interactive boards.

Language classrooms are also rather impressive; the students in them can hear native speakers and record their own speech. The desks in the physics room are connected to power, which makes it easier to perform laboratory work. The chemistry class has a demonstration desk for conducting experiments; also interactive technologies are used there.

P.E. classes are now held at a modern gym with ventilation and all the necessary equipment. Students can also exercise outside – there are sports grounds for a rope workout, for playing football and volleyball, race tracks and exercise equipment.

The number of seats at the renovated assembly hall was doubled; also a modern space for artistic and aesthetic education has been created. The school’s canteen for 160 seats now has an attractive design. The food unit was completed updated with new technological equipment.

Thermal modernization and replacement of general utilities have also been performed.

The total estimate for the renovation amounted to UAH 67.6 million. Of them, UAH 56.4 million was provided by the European Investment Bank, and the rest was allocated from the local budget.

Secondary School No. 15 became one of the 246 projects, which were reconstructed in 2015-2021 within the framework of the Ukraine Early Recovery Programme (UERP). UERP is targeted at the key municipal and social infrastructure – hospitals, schools, kindergartens, administrative and public buildings in Donetsk, Luhansk, and also Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Odesa, Kyiv, Poltava and Kherson oblasts.

“It is nice to come to such a place and spend times reading or just using the internet”, Volodymyr Novikov from Mariupol says about the renovation of the Central Korolenko Library. He often comes here with his granddaughter Amalia. “No matter how the world of technologies develops, a book will never become old-fashioned. Libraries is where the younger generation falls in love with reading. It is nice for elderly people to come and read the latests issues of newspapers or spend an evening reading their favorite book”.

“We now have a fully renovated building with energy efficient technological equipment, creative façade, comfortable learning environment to ensure conditions required for development of children,” says Natalya Zuychenko, a teacher at the Sonechko Kindergarten in Hulyaipole, Zaporizhzhia Oblast, sharing her impressions. “The building of the kindergarten was also adapted to the needs of people with disabilities and other low-mobile groups of population”.

Thanks to the UERP over 7.53 million citizens already were given access to quality infrastructure. The programme became a real contribution of the European Union and the European Investment Bank in the improvement of living conditions in nine oblasts with a focus on those who suffered the most from the conflict in the East of Ukraine.

“It is a collective success – these achievements have been realised thanks to the strong cooperation between the Ministry for Communities and Territories Development of Ukraine, and the Ministry of Finance, with the governors and the mayors playing a crucial role, as well of course as our colleagues from the EU Delegation to Ukraine. But the real success of this is not that we have been able to work together doing our job. The real success is that millions of people have better living conditions after this Programme – this is the real change and success”, stresses Jean-Erik de Zagon, Head of the EIB Resident Representation for Ukraine.

Sources

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