Schoolchildren in the Donbas will learn history from <I>The Day</I>’s Library Series
DONETSK — “The Country’s Development: Studying History/Creating History” is the name of the educational initiative carried out by The Day and the Foundation for the Development of Ukraine (SCM Holdings) to support the Year of Ukrainian Books and Scholarship. The action, which took place in Donetsk with support from the Department of Education and Science of the Donetsk Oblast State Administration, involved nearly 1,000 general educational establishments in the Donetsk region.
As part of this education initiative, copies of the first three books from The Day’s Library Series — Ukraina Incognita, Dvi Rusi (Two Rus’), and Viiny i Myr (Wars and Peace) — were distributed to regional school libraries. According to the foundation’s representatives, these publications will serve as excellent teachers’ books because these collections of articles are an important “source of supplementary information to history textbooks.” Local teachers believe that these publications will be also useful for students and post-graduate students specializing in Ukrainian history, as well as for schoolchildren who are eager to know as much as possible about their country’s history.
A total of 917 Donbas non-specialized schools (1st to 3rd ranks), 55 educational institutions that are part of oblast communal property, and 113 vocational schools received shipments of books. These institutions will also receive a subscription to The Day’s Friday issue, which features articles on culture, social problems, history, and education.
According to the foundation’s head, Anatolii Zabolotny, a special role in organizing the action was played by The Day’s editor in chief Larysa Ivshyna, who initiated the idea. The foundation also expressed its gratitude to the administration of Donetsk oblast’s Department of Education, which in turn thanked the foundation for its support of the development of culture and education in Donetsk oblast.
“We hope that these books will motivate schoolchildren to embark on an analytical and well-considered approach to studying their own history and help boost their interest in studying this important subject. We believe that by giving them an opportunity to find answers to questions about the past and the contemporary period that interest them, we are raising an educated generation with its own judgments and desire to build a future for Ukraine. Historia est magistra vitae (History is the tutor of life) and we are certain that we will be able to educate not only full members of the European community but also a worthy generation that holds Ukraine’s future in its hands,” Zabolotny underlined during the presentation of the books.
The foundation’s head of international business and investor relations Jock Mendoza-Wilson outlined that the “Foundation for the Development of Ukraine is an important part of the SCM Company’s support for the principles of corporate social responsibility. As a representative of business, SCM wants to help Ukraine grow and develop. Therefore, investments in education via the foundation’s activities are one of the methods with which we support Ukraine’s future generations. It is a particular pleasure to give our support to brilliant educational initiatives, like providing books on Ukrainian history to over 1,000 school libraries of our native Donetsk oblast,” he said.
According to Daryna Kasianova, program and project manager of the foundation, this initiative has much in common with the Professional Orientation Program, another of the foundation’s initiatives, which is oriented at helping young people make conscious choices of profession. This project is taking place on the Internet, and its main goal is “to provide young people with an instrument to make a deliberate choice of their future profession depending on their individual psychological tendencies and to show the real picture of the lack of professional employees in Ukraine’s job market.”
According to Kasianova, the project is aimed at demonstrating that vocational specialties can bring as much success as prestigious higher education, highlighting the trends of labor market development in different regions of Ukraine, improving the negative image of “non-prestigious” specialties, and providing users with contact information for state-supported and private organizations that deal with questions of professional orientation and employment.
