Ukrainian teachers receive 30,000 laptops from Google, UNESCO

MOSCOW. Nov 2 (Interfax) - Google and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) have handed 30,000 Chromebook laptops over to Ukraine as part of the ongoing Laptop for Every Teacher initiative, the Ukrainian Digital Transformation Ministry said on Tuesday.

"In order for teachers to continue to deliver lessons, they need to be provided with computers. That is why we are continuing the Laptop for Every Teacher initiative. With the support of Google and UNESCO, new Chromebooks are regularly delivered to educational institutions," Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation Mikhail Fedorov is quoted by Ukrainian media as saying in a social media post.

About 30,000 laptops out of the planned 50,000 have already been delivered to Ukrainian regions, the message said.

"About 5,000 laptops have been delivered to the Zhitomir region and Kiev. Additionally, almost 9,000 laptops have been delivered to [other regions], in particular, 2,412 to the Lvov region, 1,283 to the Volyn region, 1,182 to the Ternopol region, 1,124 to the Transcarpathian region, 2,147 to the Ivano-Frankovsk region, and 496 to the Chernovtsy region," it said.

On October 5, Google and UNESCO handed over the first batch of 10,000 laptops as part of the project and increased the planned number of aid from 43,000 to 50,000 Chromebooks.

As reported, the project is a follow-up to the Laptop to Every Teacher initiative, and its implementation has been made possible "thanks to an agreement of the Ukrainian Ministry of Education and Science with Google and with the support of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)."

As part of its partnership with the Ministry of Education and Science, Google is providing 1.2 million euros to UNESCO to train 50,000 teachers in psychosocial skills in order to support the mental health of their students. This is part of the overall support Google and its employees are providing worth more than $40 million in monetary aid and $5 million in donations for humanitarian projects.

Additionally, 250 universities and colleges have been granted free access to premium features of Google Workspace for Education for six months.