In late June, The Russian Ministry of Education announced that it would provide «assistance for a wide range of educational needs» in the occupied Ukrainian territories, subject to «urgent need.» The announcement was made in response to media reports about teachers potentially being sent to the so-called «DPR».
As of today, 230 teachers from 33 Russian regions have confirmed their intent to work in occupied Ukraine, and have been listed into a corresponding database. In early July, the database, provided to Novaya Gazeta. Europe by the Alliance of Teachers, mistakenly popped up on the Dagestan government website. The volunteers include teachers, school principals, methodologists, kindergarten teachers, drivers, and regional officials.
In July, Russian Education Minister Sergei Kravtsov handed out certificates to schoolchildren from the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions of Ukraine, promising to bring the entire education system in the seized territories to Russian standards by 1 September — the start of the school year.
In the Kherson region, 20 teachers and officials from Krasnodar will help «russify» school programmes. «Our main job is finding out which schools need methodologies and curricula,» explains Vitaly Pavlenko, deputy head of the education department of the regional Ministry of Youth Policy. «We’re also organising field trips for children from several schools to our region [Krasnodar].»
Kindergartens in the occupied territories will also receive «methodological support» — this includes training and seminars for teachers, as well as the adoption of the Russian legal framework and language. «I’m expected to go on long business trips to the LPR, where I’ll provide managerial support to local educators,» says Tatiana Taratinova, head of the Mankovsky kindergarten in the Rostov region. «The point [of our work] is to stop all attempts at ‘bending’ the Ukrainian program and bring the system in line with the Russian format. My task is making this transition less painful».