Slovaks always make sure my family and I are okay, says a Ukrainian teacher who fled the war

Ganna Konovalenko has found herself in Zvolen, central Slovakia, after she left the Mykolaiv area in Ukraine due to the war.

Ganna Konovalenko had taught English to the youngest children at a primary school in her home village before she had to flee the war in Ukraine. Today, she is a teaching assistant in Zvolen, central Slovakia, where she helps Ukrainian pupils. Ganna Konovalenko had taught English to the youngest children at a primary school in her home village before she had to flee the war in Ukraine. Today, she is a teaching assistant in Zvolen, central Slovakia, where she helps Ukrainian pupils. (Source: Facebook/Lenka Balkovičová)

The war in Ukraine did not stop Ganna Konovalenko from teaching children, which she has always seen as her calling.

She had taught English at a primary school in a small village in the Mykolaiv region, in southern Ukraine, where she had lived before the war. Konovalenko is hoping to return there one day.

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The Ukrainian teacher fled the conflict with her son and found refuge in Zvolen, central Slovakia, where her daughter had moved for work at a local hospital before the war broke out.

On the Spectator College podcast, she talks about the conflict, her arrival in Zvolen, and her new job as a teaching assistant at a local primary school.

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Listen to the podcast:

Exam topic: Education

Other study materials:

Glossary: Teachers call for more freedom at schools Read more  Missing from school: Vision, systematic support, freedom Read more 

The Spectator College is a programme designed to support the study and teaching of English in Slovakia, as well as to inspire interest in important public issues among young people.

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