NEWS AND VIEWS: Special awards recognize educators who teach in Ukrainian in Ukraine (12/06/98)

NEWS AND VIEWS

Special awards recognize educators who teach in Ukrainian in Ukraine

by Jurij Darewych

TORONTO - Three teachers from rural centers in the Chernihiv Oblast of Ukraine were awarded certificates along with stipends of $100 at a ceremony held at the Mykhailo Kotsiubynskyi Museum in the historic city of Chernihiv in July of this year. The prize winners were Olha Butenko, a secondary school teacher from Varva; Myron Bilous, a teacher of geography at the Taras Shevchenko secondary school in Korop; and Yulia Burma, a mathematics teacher at the Stepan Vasylchenko High School in Ichnia, all in the Chernihiv Oblast.

These prizes are the first in a series that will be awarded in various oblasts of Ukraine, beginning with Chernihiv, Luhansk and Sumy. Three awards will be given annually over the next five years. The stipend program was initiated last year by the Toronto branch of Canadian Friends of Ukraine to recognize the work of outstanding teachers who teach in Ukrainian-language schools or in Ukrainian in schools with other languages of instruction. The program is aimed particularly at rural areas and smaller towns of central and eastern Ukraine.

The teachers' awards program is made possible by the generous contributions of donors. The first series of three stipends awarded in Chernihiv were named after the first donor, Dr. Maria Fischer-Slysh. Dr. Fischer-Slysh donated funds to cover awards in the three oblasts for a period of three years. Similar awards in other oblasts will be named after other benefactors or after persons stipulated by them.

The award winners are selected by a three-member committee from among a list of candidates nominated by teachers or community activists from the region in question. The criteria include outstanding and/or long-term service, and the rules stipulate that teachers cannot nominate themselves.

This year's competition in Chernihiv Oblast was announced in the local press, and the selection committee received 13 nominations, with appended reference letters and supporting documents. The difficult task of advertising the awards program, collecting the nominations and then making the selection is the responsibility of the local selection committee.

The Chernihiv Selection Committee was headed by Natalia Solomakha, a leader of the Plast branch in Chernihiv, who acted as the representative of the Canadian Friends of Ukraine. Other committee members were Vasyl Chepurnyi, head of the Prosvita Society in Chernihiv Oblast, and Nina Halyba of the local Pedagogical Society.

The presentation ceremony at the Kotsiubynskyi Museum included readings by poetess Nadia Halkovska and works by composer Mykola Zbaratskyi, both from Chernihiv.

In letters to the Canadian Friends of Ukraine, the award recipients expressed their gratitude for the recognition of their work, and for the stipends particularly in light of the difficult financial circumstances in which they have to work. Without exception, the teachers stressed the importance to them of the interest their compatriots abroad take in Ukrainian-language education and noted that the awards are a very welcome morale booster.

Their letters also conveyed a sense of great love for the pupils in their care, and enthusiasm for their role as teachers. After reading through their letters, one of the speakers at the awards ceremony stated: "Let us hope that there are many more teachers like the award recipients."

Canadian Friends of Ukraine acknowledged a donation of $15,000 for the Teachers' Awards Project made in memory of Anna and Petro Patyk. Canadian Friends of Ukraine has decided to establish an Endowment Fund for the Teachers' Awards in their name. This will enable the project to expand its awards throughout central and eastern Ukraine and guarantee a number of awards for many years.

Anyone interested in becoming a benefactor, and to have an award named after a loved one, is asked to contact Jurij Darewych, who heads the Teachers' Awards Program of the Toronto Branch of Canadian Friends of Ukraine at his e-mail address, [email protected], or Lesia Shymko, Executive Director, Canadian Friends of Ukraine, 620 Spadina Ave., Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2H4; telephone, (416) 964-6644; fax, (416) 964-6085.

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