Ukraine’s education system is, for sure, far from perfect, but in the schools of the non-controlled territories, the situation seems to be even wilder and more flagrant. In this article of “Informator”, we will tell you about the changes schools and students had to go through in the occupied Alchevsk in Luhansk’s region.The “Russian Spring” confiscated flags and hymn

In the spring of 2014, the education system was taking its course without any particular tensions. Despite the successful turn of the “Russian Spring” and the stressful conditions, the students were quietly getting prepared for the last day of school, graduation and exams.

The beginning of the armed conflict at the end of May 2014 was a pretext to remove the celebrations from May 27 to 31. The celebrations of the last day of school were therefore spoiled and not joyful at all. They were characterized by the absence of Ukrainian flags on the place of the celebrations and on the schools’ façades. It appeared that, the day before, armed representatives of “Autodefense Alchevsk” had visited the schools of the city and threatened to use violent means, forcing them to take off any state symbol and forbidding them to turn on the Ukrainian hymn during the celebrations.

Is it necessary to remind that the majority of the heads of school was forced to conform to these demands ? The Alchevsk Information Technological Gymansium was the exception: its head, the “Party of Regions” deputy Viktor Pak, either from underestimating the danger of the situation or from habit, turned on the Ukrainian hymn during the solemn celebrations. According to the rumors, the experienced and respected teacher Pak was soon the unfortunate subject of unpleasant talks with armed people and was removed from his functions.

In the summer, military actions started in the region, the students were on holidays and went away, anywhere as long as away from the shellings. The new school year began a month later than usual, on October, 1st. At that time, the frontline drew back from Alchevsk and the likelihood of shellings around the city considerably decreased. The children went back to school.

“The colourful underwear” of Aleksei : how a lover of bermuda shorts became the local head of the Department of Education

There were changes in the local management of education. Instead of the head of the Department of Education with years of experience, Elena Kolocovskoi, the new head of the department became the former regional deputy and student of the Donbas State Technical University, the стахановчанин Aleksei Okalelov. This announcement was a true shock for the local teachers : Okalelov was not competent in the education’s matters but quite suited the power of the “LPR”, as he was amenable and easy to manipulate.

Here is what the Alchevsk journalist Oskana Cabardina wrote after the visit in Alchevsk of the former “Minister of Education of the LNR” Lesya Lapteva: “The visit of Lesya Lapteva did not go unnoticed for Alchevsk’s education sphere, a new chief is now in office. I think the two ex-heads must be shocked, as well as, by the way, the majority of the sane Alchevk’s teachers. Some of the young regionalists of the City Council produced on their surroundings a more depressing impression. Liocha was one of them. As a test, I would like to ask Liocha to write a dictation in their lovely Russian language. This would be fun. Moreover, to make oneself’s an idea of the new head of education’s background, you just need to enter his Vkontakt page and take a look at the joyful and colourful underwear», wrote Cabardina.

The “colorful underwear” of the new chief of the Department of Education Alexey Okolelov has literally become a byword and a kind of local meme. The photo of Okolelov wearing multicolour bermuda shorts was quickly erased from the social network but was copied on new resources.

Moreover, Okolelov was not used to be the hero of a scandal : unknown two years before , photos from Okolelov’s page of him and his classmates were displayed as posters all over Alchevsk. Even then, there was a remarkable desire in Alchevsk to display these “colourful underwear” and pioneer caps, visible on the photo.

Okolelov then described himself as “sly, severe, ambitious, resourceful, ruthless. Nice. Cad . Incredibly audacious. Easily earning people’s trust. Phenomenally pleased with his jaunty work”. A simple copy-paste from internet, strangely enough, quite accurately characterized the new head of the local Department of Education and young regional deputy.

It is hard to say which reasons led the responsible to name Okolelov as the head of the regional Department of Education, but the facts remain : a young lover of bermuda shorts from Stakhanov is taking free control of the fragile minds of Alchevsk’s schoolchildren with pseudo-values of the “republic”.

“So that it is like in Russia”: a five-point grading system, priests and buns

2015 was for Alchevsk’s teachers a year of uncertainty and change.

In exchange of some cash money, Valentina Tkachenko replaced the escaping Minister of Education of the “LPR” Lesya Lapteva. One of the biggest and strangest surprise from Tkanchenko for the students was the classes of Orthodoxy and the assignation for each student of a personal priest, as well as the promise to give each student buns and brioches. This promise was not fulfilled in lots of schools.

What’s more, the five-points grading system came back, instead of the twelve-points, “so that it is like in Russia”.

The teachers, facing arrears of salary, threatened to strike, lots of them resigned and were lost, not knowing with which school program they should teach children: Russian or Ukrainian. At the same time, Okalelov joyfully took twenty-six thousands Russian textbooks from the group “Ghost” (Prizrak) and sent them to the “anti-fascist headquarters of Moscow”.

“From the 1st of January (of 2015 – ed.) we will pass to the Russian education’s standards. We have to answer the needs of all the schools, that is why this help is now very necessary”, commented Aleksei on this event.
Even if demonstrating ostentatious zeal, Okalelov keeps on regularly receiving public reprimands from Alchevsk’s Mayor, especially regarding the failure of children’s summer camp in 2015.

Despite the multiple declarations and promises of Okalelov “not to touch” Ukrainian language, in the city’s schools, the volume of Ukrainian hours gradually diminished, as well as the signs on schools are gradually changed and the Ukrainian stands and symbols destroyed.

« The Last Time » : how Alchevsk lost its Ukrainian Gymnasium

Alchevsk lost its one and only Ukrainian-speaking gymnasium. In 2015, the “Ukrainian Humanitarian Gymnasium of Alchevsk” (UHGA) was discretly renamed to “Humanitarian Gymnasium and Kindergarten of Alchevsk – named after the Soviet Union’s hero Petro Lipovenko”. From 2016, children, who before received knowledge in Ukrainian, were now studying in Russian – “such was the decree of the Ministry of Education”.

Eliminating the “source” of the Ukrainian language in Alchevsk, the “Ministry of Education” of the LNR apparently got revenge for the Gymnasium’s free thinking and contradiction. On the last day of school of 2015, despite the presence of a lot of soldiers and of the very “Toilet King” Bebechko at the celebrations, the children were not afraid of performing the song “The Last Time” of the deceased Kuzma Scriabin in Ukrainian. And this was the very last time that, on an official event of the existing UHGA, the Ukrainian language echoed.

According to our information, the Directors and Heads of school were reprimanded several times and had to go through talks aiming at persuading the school not to demonstrate too much of “Ukrainitude” in the education process. Indeed, after such talks, no Ukrainian presence remained at all in this school, except the old signs.

Not satisfied enough with this, Okalelov and its team started to fight over the Ukrainian names of the education institutions. The school complex “Zlagoda”, in the village of Gorkova, was renamed to “Rostok”. The educational complex “Svitanok” was also the subject of such renaming, as well as numerous kindergartens.

Why Alchevsk’s children are scared of going to school and do not pull girls’ ponytails

It got more and more frequent in Alchevsk that the students were threatened or even beaten because of the Ukrainian language or symbols.

That is how last winter, in one of the schools of Alchevsk, a shameful fact happened when a 7th-class schoolchild was beaten up by his classmates because he had the Ukrainian flag and trident on his diary.
“They called him a ”dill” (ukrop) and began to beat him, the teacher pretended not to see and went out of the classroom”, tells a classmate of the beaten boy.

Afterwards, the injured boy was afraid for a long time to go to class and got eventually transferred to another school.
Often, the children whose parents joined the ranks of the “militia” blackmail and threaten the teachers, menacing to complain to their parents and to send the teachers to “the cave”. That are the main reasons why the teachers suffer from the Ukrainian language.

“In our class, the teacher added two points to a schoolboy because he refused to write a dictation in Ukrainian and declared that he will not study the “language of the junta”. He said that he would complain to his militiaman father who would then come and fire gunshots. The young teacher got scared and graded him with a four”, tells one of the parents about this incredible case.

As it turned out, this case was not unique. The classmates also suffer from the unforeseeable actions of the daring militiamen.

The classmates are afraid of the juvenile militiaman of Alchevsk from the band “Ghost”, Bogdan Necheret. When at school a girl received an order, one of her classmate was asked if Bogdana was pulled by the ponytail. “No ! – answered the young girl, confused and looking down, and he added : for sure because they are all afraid of her”. Bogdana, standing by his side, responded with a smug smirk.

While the children of Alchevsk’s schools listen to priests’ sermons and study the history of “the formation of the young republic”, the parents who have the possibility to go away transfer their children to Ukrainian schools or choose distance learning, to receive knowledge and qualification from Ukrainian education, and not a useless piece of paper from the “LPR”.

Aleksei Kirillov for informator.lg.ua