Back to school in Donetsk to sound of mortar fire

Donetsk (Ukraine) (AFP) - Students returning for the new school year in eastern Ukraine on Wednesday will get real-life conflict lessons as they take their seats in battle-scarred classrooms.

At one high school in rebel-held Donetsk, teachers, students and parents are refusing to allow the conflict to derail studies, joining forces to clear away rubble, replace blown-out windows and set buckets to catch leaks, a month after four rockets destroyed the roof.

Many students and teachers are returning to Donetsk for the start of the academic year after fleeing to safer areas during the height of the insurgency.

But with both sides violating a truce that took effect in early September -- 13 new deaths, both military and civilian, were reported Monday -- the outlook remains uncertain.

Rain drips onto the floor at Donetsk's prestigious High School 33, whose roof was hit by four rockets on August 27, sparking a fire.

"We are trying to save whatever we can, but of course we can't resume classes here," said the principal, Tetyana Denissenko. "We have to replace the roof, the heating. It will cost at least 10 million hryvnias (around 600,000 euros, $760,000)".

Denissenko said she asked for help from the pro-Russian insurgents' self-styled Donetsk People's Republic, "but they don't have money."

Instead, the school is appealing for donations from the private sector, posting a wish list on its website.

"A nearby school has an unoccupied floor, which we will use, dividing the school day into two half-days by age group," she said.

The staff has not been paid since June, she added, lamenting: "It's as if Kiev has forgotten us."

Suddenly mortar fire erupts in the distance. Denissenko points towards the window and shrugs her shoulders.

The UN children's agency UNICEF says fighting has damaged 74 schools and 44 kindergartens despite the ceasefire in the Donetsk region and another rebel stronghold, Lugansk.

Even so, the separatist's unrecognised education minister, Igor Kostenok, seems eager to allay fears.

- Rebels paying in cash -

Last Thursday, he went to the National University of Donetsk with a plastic bag full of wads of money, described as a first salary payment to the professors.

"I paid 2,000 to 3,000 hryvnias (120 to 180 euros) to each professor," he told AFP. "It's not enough, but it's a start."

He said the rebels planned to model the university's curriculum and those of other establishments after their Russian counterparts.

"But we won't impose curriculums on the professors this year. They are smart enough to do it themselves," Kostenok said.

"In our region, 90 percent of the people speak Russian. That said, if the students want to have classes in Ukrainian, they can," he said.

The Donetsk People's Republic "budget is enough to finance the school system. We are paying in cash for now, until the banking system gets back on track."

Elsewhere in Ukraine, the school year started on schedule on September 1.

The Kiev government has said that those who have fled the Donetsk and Lugansk regions could attend school in other districts, while encouraging university students to take online classes.

Donetsk University's administration, meanwhile, has moved to the city of Vinnitsia, some 800 kilometres (500 miles) to the west.

A Donetsk University economics professor who gave his name only as Yuriy said he was counting on the Internet to address the crisis.

"I can't leave the region, but I can't abide talk of this People's Republic," he told AFP. "Imagine what the diplomas would be worth. It's a joke. People have made big decisions, made grand statements, but they haven't thought about the consequences."

Yuriy said he and his colleagues had adapted their course for the Internet. "And it will be the same for the high schools. Parents will be afraid of driving their children to schools that could be bombed. The Internet will take up the baton, I think at least until spring until we can see how it works out."

Ukrainian Education Minister Sergiy Kvit has spoken out against a resumption of classes in conflict zones, fearing what he called a "Beslan" scenario.

It was a reference to a 2004 school hostage-taking in Beslan, in the Caucasus republic of North Ossetia, which ended in a siege that left more than 330 people dead.