Irena Korbabicz-Putko says her decision to move from Canada to Ukraine in 2014 is the best one she’s made in her life.
After Ukraine’s EuroMaidan Revolution that drove President Viktor Yanukovych from power on Feb. 22, 2014, triggering Russia’s war on Ukraine, Korbabicz-Putko came to Ukraine to head the newly founded Novopecherska School in Kyiv.
Having had a 23-year career in the Canadian education sector, teaching in Canadian and Eastern Rite schools, where mainly children with Ukrainian roots were studying, Korbabicz-Putko started to consider a move to her ancestral homeland.
So when in early 2014 an email landed in her son’s mailbox saying a Ukrainian school wanted to hire a Canadian principal, she jumped at the chance.
Difficult mission
The job advertisement came from Zoya Lytvyn, a founder of the Novopecherska School and head of the non-profit Osvitoria educational project. Lytvyn had reached out to the Canadian Bureau for International Education to find a school principal and other top professional educators.
“We had the difficult mission of creating a benchmark of modern Ukrainian education,” Lytvyn explains. Most Ukrainian schools, she said, are still burdened by the legacy of the Soviet educational system.
The idea of opening a school first came to Lytvyn several years ago. She started researching foreign educational systems, looking for one that might fit in Ukraine. At Osvitoria, they ended up selecting the Canadian one, as the system is ranked among the best in the world, according to Program for International Student Assessment or PISA. According to PISA, Canadian students consistently beat their peers in science, reading and on equity issues like gender balance.
Zoya Lytvyn, a founder of Novopecherska School in Kyiv. The private school enrolls 462 students in the first through 11th grades. (Kostyantyn Chernichkin)
Lytvyn was confident the school project would be successful. The chosen location is ideal — on the territory of the luxurious Novopecherski Lypki business class residential complex in Kyiv’s elite Pechersk district. The UPD development company, which constructed the complex, “understood they needed to invest in the school,” Lytvyn said. Help also came from K Fund, headed by Ukrainian multimillionare businessman and Lytvyn’s husband, Vasyl Khmelnytsky.
Ukrainian heart
In 2014, the school was ready to open its doors, but missing a principal. The founders were looking for a Canadian principal of Ukrainian origin who has worked in communities with varied cultural backgrounds.
Korbabicz-Putko, even though she is a third-generation Ukrainian-Canadian, had always felt a deep connection with the country.
“My parents took it upon themselves to bring that heritage that we are Ukrainians and those are our traditions,” she said. And when she learned about the concept — raising people with “global minds and Ukrainian hearts,” she wanted in.
“I have a Ukrainian heart,” Korbabicz-Putko said.
Showcase knowledge
During its first year, the Novopecherska school educated 350 students. Korbabicz-Putko recalls her first day at school as a “mix of pride and joy.” Together with her Ukrainian team, she started combining the best Canadian and Ukrainian practices at school.
“A high level of achievement is a priority, but knowledge itself is not the key ingredient,” the principal said. Rather, the school focuses on inquiry-based learning and stimulating a child’s curiosity.
“When you only provide the knowledge and don’t allow a child to ask questions, that’s not going to work,” she said. “During exams, children in Canada sit down and write out what they’ve lived through — it’s not just about their memory, it’s rather about skills. We help children to showcase their knowledge.”
Students of Novopecherska School celebrate The Last School Bell on June 3 in Kyiv. (Courtesy of Novopecherska school)
Progress report
There are now 462 students from the first to 11th grades, including two pre-school groups; 20 students graduated this year.
The main language of the school is Ukrainian, but children can study English, French, Chinese, German, Russian and Spanish with native speakers.
The school also aims to produce business-minded students for employers who “require organizational skills, problem solving, teamwork. And that’s not been covered by the Ukrainian curriculum,” the principal said.
The school issues progress report cards in which the teachers assess whether the students are task-oriented, problem solvers and good communicators.
Scholarships
Parents who want this Western-style schooling have to be prepared to spend a lot on their children’s education.
Yearly tuition starts at $8,300 for prep school and rises to $12,850. A scholarship program is available for talented students. Korbabicz-Putko said the goal is to have at least 20 percent of the students studying courtesy of scholarships. There’s also a 5 percent discount if two or more children come from the same family.
The school is also working on establishing a dual Ukrainian-Canadian high school diploma that could be “fully recognized” by the Canadian system, Korbabicz-Putko said.
She wants her students to be lifelong learners. She practices what she preaches. In July, she’s going to the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education in Toronto to study more about educational methodologies.
