Windswept hill with mobile signal serves as classroom for Ukrainian children

Hontarivka:

In the only place in their village where they could find a strong mobile internet signal – a windswept hill on a barren plain – Ukrainian fifth-grader Mykola Dzyuba and her friends have built a makeshift tent to serve as a remote classroom .

“We sit here for about two or three hours, sometimes just for an hour,” Djuba said as the wind shook the rickety structure. “When it got cold recently, it wasn’t great.”

Dziuba’s school in eastern Ukraine has been in distance learning mode since the start of the new school year in September, weeks before the area was retaken from Russian occupation during the Ukrainian counter-offensive.

This inspired him and his friends to seek their own place of learning.

They said they collected materials – plastic sheeting, wooden poles, bricks and sand – from around their homes.

In the shadow of a water tower on a low hill, he found that mobile coverage was good enough for a stable Internet connection. The tattered tent he made soon attracted his classmates.

“Everyone was sitting there talking, the teachers were showing us things,” Dziuba said. “We did a lot.”

Students listen to lectures and send assignments back and forth to their teacher through messaging apps.

School director Lyudmila Myronenko said she did not expect her students to take to distance learning with such enthusiasm.

“I was really in awe of the kids,” she said. “They wanted to see us, they wanted to communicate with us somehow.”

Russia invaded Ukraine 11 months ago, starting a conflict that has killed thousands and devastated regions, especially in Ukraine’s south and east.

Repeated Russian missile attacks on critical infrastructure since last October have also plunged large parts of the country into periodic power cuts.

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