Portugal to rebuild schools in the Ukrainian region of Jitomir
Portugal will help the education minister, João Costa, on Monday.
“We are going to focus our support on a specific region, Jitomir, where we already have a work of mapping schools where we can”, told Lusa the Minister of Education, who is participating in the Lugano Conference, in Switzerland, which aims to prepare a plan for the reconstruction of Ukraine.
Ukrainian government estimates point to 1,200 educational establishments in the country destroyed by war, since the beginning of the war invasion of Ukraine, since the beginning of the war invasion of Ukraine on 24 February.
In the region of Jitomir, the attacks, according to the destroyed João Costa, will present different levels of destruction.
According to João Costa, the preparatory project for the reconstruction of schools “has already begun”, in a joint effort between the Government and the Ministry of Education, through the Parque Escolar, with the Ukrainian authorities.
Portugal, for the requalification of other countries, responsible for educational establishments from kindergartens to secondary schoolsthe number of schools that Portugal will have to recover is still being studied.
“It will be the technical work to define our level of intervention and support”, explained the minister.
“At the moment, there is a very intense work, between Parque Escolar and the authorities, for the entire technical definition. Only when we realize the construction model concrete is the type of operation that will start designing an intervention schedule”, adds João Costa.
The minister also stressed that this project has to ensure “a balance between a recovery that Ukraine wants to be relatively quick and the principles of quality and safety of the buildings themselves”.
The war in Ukraine led to the flight of millions of people, Portugal currently has 46,181 designated protections for children, up to 28% granted to minors (about 13,000 children), according to data released this Monday by the Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF).
Since the beginning of the conflict, Portuguese schools have opened their doors to these students and, according to the minister, for about 4,700 Ukrainian students enrolled in Portuguese education.
“We have had a very stable number of enrollments at the end of the 3rd period and already with an efficiency with the enrollments for the 1st period of next year, with a very stable number of 4,700 students”, he said. Lusa.
There is still no movement of return to Ukraine, “not least because with the data that have been reported here, there are about 1,200 schools destroyed throughout the country and obviously families return if their children had school to attend”, said João Costa, on the sidelines. of the conference, where there are representatives from 36 countries and organizations, such as the World Bank, the World Health Organization and the European Union.