How Energize Ukraine helped keep a Ukrainian school running amid attacks, blackouts

During the winter, prolonged power outages in Pryluky, Chernihiv Кegion, meant schools could be without electricity for 8-10 hours a day.

For Pryluky Lyceum No. 1, named after Heorhii Voronyi, this meant constant darkness and chaos instead of normal learning. Children had to come to school with flashlights, lessons were constantly disrupted by power outages, the cafeteria could not prepare hot meals, and equipment needed for classes was useless without electricity.

After a solar power system was installed with support from the Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) Energize Ukraine initiative, the lyceum was able not only to continue operating normally during outages, but also became the only school in the city where enrollment increased – a unique development among Pryluky’s schools amid the war.

The school’s principal, Olena Rohaliova, explains how this changed life at the school.

‘It was difficult to even hold regular classes without electricity’

In Pryluky, problems with the power supply were especially noticeable during the winter months. From December through February, electricity could be cut off for 8–10 hours a day. The city’s energy infrastructure was hit repeatedly, and after such strikes, it could take many hours to restore power.

For the school, the problems went beyond a lack of lighting.

“Writing and math lessons were physically difficult to conduct. The children used flashlights and desk lamps. But the problem was not just that the classrooms were dark. Without electricity, we could not properly use our equipment or conduct some of the classes,” says Olena Rohaliova.

The lyceum operates throughout the daylight hours, but in winter, natural light is not enough: classes continue until 5:30 p.m. Because of outages, from approximately 3:00 to 6:00 p.m., students sometimes had to be moved from their classrooms to the foyer of another building, where there was more light.

The cafeteria was also affected. Because the kitchen equipment runs on electricity, prolonged outages sometimes made it impossible to prepare meals.

Electricity was also essential for administrative work. The lyceum has its own accounting department, and the necessary systems could not operate without power. Staff had to complete some of their work on weekends.

925 students and a full school day

Pryluky Lyceum No. 1 has 925 students. About 150 of them are younger children between the ages of six and eight. For them, prolonged power outages were especially difficult, the principal says.

“We understand that for a young child, constant darkness is a serious problem. They cannot see properly, read, write, or work with a textbook. These are basic things that a school needs to provide,” she explains.

1 2 3 4 Previous Next When power outages forced other schools in the city to shorten the school day, the lyceum tried to continue classes. However, without a stable source of electricity, this was difficult.

The situation changed after the solar power system was installed with support from the Energize Ukraine initiative.

“When the system was already up and running, we had electricity all the time. I monitored the batteries every hour to see how long they would last. Over the entire winter, they fully discharged only three times,” Olena Rohaliova recalls.

Now, even during citywide power outages, the lyceum can continue teaching.

“When the city is dark, children are simply sent home. But they come to us because we have electricity. Not a single class is shortened,” the principal says.

Technology that keeps working

The solar power system supplies electricity to the parts of the school where students in grades 1-6 study. This makes it possible to use equipment that has become a normal part of modern education: computers, televisions, interactive whiteboards and panels, and printers.

The lyceum has four computer labs and a STEM laboratory. Without electricity, much of this equipment simply cannot be used.

“For us, it is important not just to have light in the classroom. We want children to be able to learn fully and use all the equipment available at the school,” Olena Rohaliova explains.

According to her, a stable power supply became especially important during the period when the school day extends into the evening and natural light is insufficient in winter.

There is another change that the principal associates with stable learning conditions. Since the beginning of the full-scale war, the number of students at the lyceum has been increasing, even though the overall number of schoolchildren in Pryluky has declined.

Today, about 4,800 children attend the city’s 11 schools. According to the principal, Pryluky Lyceum No. 1 is the only school in the city where the number of students has increased since 2022.

“Parents see that the educational process here is not interrupted. Children come to school, classes are held according to the schedule, computers and interactive whiteboards are working. This is important to parents,” Rohaliova says.

For the school itself, energy independence primarily means being able to plan its work without depending on whether there will be electricity in the city’s power grid that day.

The installation of the solar power system did not solve all the problems brought by the war, but it gave the lyceum an opportunity to operate more reliably amid regular power outages. And while the city may be left without electricity, classes continue in the lyceum’s classrooms.