Indian returnees back in class in Ukraine as teachers go online

WITH ZOOM DPs supporting Ukraine and relief etched on their faces, Indian students welcomed the resumption of online classes on Monday by some universities in western Ukraine, two weeks after the Russian invasion forced them to leave the country.

“We are so relieved…At least, we can keep pace with the syllabus. We are just so thankful to our teachers who are taking classes even during the war,” said Ahtesham Zahid, a third-year MBBS student at Danylo Halytsky Lviv National Medical University in the city of Lviv, who is now back home in UP.

Zahid was attending a class by Prof Andrii Bazylevych on “Syndrome of Heart Insufficiency”. Bazylevych had spent the previous night hiding in the basement as sirens blared outside.

Ensuring that the students did not spend their time discussing the war, the professor quickly got the class going with the help of PPTs. To keep students on their toes, he asked questions every few minutes.

Students said that although online classes have resumed, their parents are still worried about their future. “We pray that our teachers stay safe, we hope normalcy is restored in Ukraine at the earliest so that we can go back. We miss Ukraine,” said Jayesh Sarmalkar, another student.

“We have been divided into small groups of 14-15 students. All 14 joined today because we do not want to miss a single class,” said a third student.

According to Bazylevych, online classes resumed on Monday at universities in western cities, such as Lviv and Ternopil, but several teachers in other cities such as Kharkiv could not log in due to Internet disruptions.

“The situation is worse in cities directly affected by war, where the Internet is not stable. We do not want our students to lose due to temporary changes in our country. But for how long we will be able to conduct online classes is unknown. According to the university rector’s order, we will study this way till the end of the semester,” he said.

“Today, some of our students put up screens on Zoom supporting Ukraine. Our Indian students have expressed their understanding and support for Ukraine. Of course, Zoom classes cannot make up for physical classes but that’s how we managed during the pandemic, too,” he said.

Bazylevych lives in Lviv where “an explosion happened two nights ago”. “There were sirens the whole of last night. We were hiding in the basement. I came to the apartment today morning to conduct the class,” he said.

“One teacher texted that she was fine but class was cancelled because there were air alarms,” said a student.

The students said several teachers have moved out of Ukraine to neighbouring countries. “They are in Moldova, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and the UK. Nothing was discussed about the war in our class today and everyone just concentrated on the subject,” said a student.

Nakonechna Sofia, an associate professor in the department of physiology at Ternopil National Medical University (TNMU) spent the night in a shelter amid sirens from 2 am to 8 am. At 9 am, she was at the department to conduct four classes “back to back”.

“For the past one year, we conducted online classes due to Covid, so we were prepared. Our online study material is available on our website, including material for practical classes such as videos, etc. It is difficult to prepare for a class after listening to sirens all night but we are adults. Even if we sit in shelters the whole night, we have to take classes the next day,” Sofia said.

“Even if the sirens stop, we spend the nights in shelters because we don’t know when the bombing will start. If we miss a part of the class, we try to finish it the next day… My students are mostly Indians and they asked about our well-being but there’s no time to discuss war or politics. The focus is on finishing their semesters,” she said.

There are around 1,800 Indian students at TNMU and about 1,000 at the Lviv university. According to teachers, universities in the eastern cities of Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv, near the Russian border, “are expected to begin classes this week but it looks difficult”.

Sofia says the war cannot affect their duties because the future of students is at stake. “Even if I was sitting in a shelter the whole night, I should teach the next morning. It doesn’t matter if I have slept or not. Our reality is horrible right now but we are trying to do our best for our students,” she said.

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