When should schools be closed?
Today, experts and scientists do not have a complete picture of the consequences of the rapid spread of the new Omicron strain. In a context of uncertainty, governments in many countries are considering whether to leave schools open. However, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) believes that despite the growing number of new strain morbidity, which is dangerous due to its ability to infect more people than other variants of coronavirus, school closures should be avoided nationwide whenever possible. Henrietta H. Fore, Executive Director of the Fund, made this statement.
According to her, in a situation where it is necessary to take strict measures in the field of public health, schools should be the last institutions to be closed and the first to be opened. Henrietta Fore fears another wave of mass school closures will have catastrophic consequences for children.
The Fund notes that the Covid-19 pandemic has already led to serious disruptions in education systems around the world. Millions of children have been denied access not only to education but also to food, as well as psychological and social support. Many schoolchildren in low-income countries do not have computers, smartphones or even internet access, hence, they are almost completely deprived of the opportunity to study under quarantine.
The Executive Director of UNICEF stressed that humanity cannot afford another year without full-fledged full-time education of children.
She added that 2022 should be a year of priorities in the field of education and called for increased investment in this area.
Track from space, react on Earth
In May 2021, the State Space Agency of Ukraine put into operation a satellite system for early detection of forest fires. Volodymyr Taftay, Head of the State Space Agency of Ukraine, reminded of it on his Facebook page.
The problem remains a serious challenge for Ukraine. Thus, in April 2020, a severe fire broke out on the border between Ukraine and Belarus. The fire was spreading with great speed, even Kyiv was suffocated by smoke. The fire did not reach the confinement of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant only 1 kilometer.
– Later, analyzing satellite photos, we saw that there were about 10 primary fires, – Volodymyr Taftay said. – They were located in definite places at equal distances from each other. Based on satellite data, we concluded that the cause of the fires was not just a cigarette stub or an abandoned fire, where someone fried shish-kebabs. We saw that the forest was set on fire in several places, in an orderly manner. That is, the fire was set up intentionally to create an emergency situation in Ukraine.
The natural factor should also not be ruled out. 2022 is expected to be one of the hottest years on Earth throughout the whole period of observations. This was reported by UNIAN, according to the annual forecast of global temperature published by the Meteorological Office of Great Britain.
So how does an early forest fire detection system work? American satellites take photos of the territory of Ukraine 14 times a day. And if (as soon as) they detect the so-called “thermal anomaly”, i.e., fire, then the early warning algorithm is triggered. The Ukrainian Space Agency (USA) receives information from the National Space Facilities Control and Test Center, processes it, and plots the exact coordinates on the map.
Leaders of the nearby Amalgamated Territorial Communities, foresters and rescuers will have detailed information on the fire, its map and will begin to extinguish fire within 30 minutes of the fire detection, thus saving lives, property and tens of thousands of hectares of forest.
According to the Head of the USA, the accuracy of the data is 90%, it is a very high figure.
“Currently, 14 regions (mostly southern, northern and western) are linked up with the system,” Volodymyr Taftay added. “We will link up the rest of the regions in early 2022.”
Ratings
Our positions
The annual list of the best universities in emerging economies of Europe and Central Asia for 2022 (QS Emerging Europe and Central Asia University Rankings 2022) has been published, which includes 450 best higher education institutions, including 41 from Ukraine. This was reported by the press service of the Ministry of Education and Science.
The ranking was compiled by the QS Quacquarelli Symonds global research and consulting center. Ten indicators are taken into account: the academic reputation of the educational institution, its reputation among employers, professors-and-students proportion, number of publications per professor and employee, number of citations per publication, share of foreign professors and personnel, share of foreign students, share of professors and personnel with a degree, the scope of international research collaborations and the presence of the educational institution in the online environment.
Thus, the number of Ukrainian higher education institutions among the best in Eastern Europe and Central Asia increased to 41, which is an absolute record in the history of this regional ranking (last year it was 25). At the same time, Ukraine’s presence in the top 100 rankings fell from four to three universities amid a general decline in their reputational and scientometric performance.
Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv is in the top 100, it ranks 35 (33 in 2021); the National Technical University of Ukraine “Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute” ranks 63 (66 in 2021) and V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University ranks 69 (67 in 2021).
Sixteen of our universities were included in the ranking for the first time, four universities improved their positions compared to last year, and seven kept them.
The full rating is available at www.topuniversities.com.
Priorities-2022
Scientific European integration
Last year, the Roadmap for Ukraine’s integration into the European Research Area was updated. Priorities for the implementation of this document for 2022 were presented during the info day “Research and Innovation Day in Ukraine”, which took place at the Ministry of Education and Science.
Among the priorities, the Head of the expert group on integration into the European Research Area of the Directorate of Science and Innovation of the MES Hryhoriy Mozolevych mentioned the formation of a pool of experts and ensuring the work of Ukrainian representatives in subgroups of the EU’s Committee on European Research Area and Innovation (ERAC).
Another vector is the introduction of the open science state policy.
The next priority is to determine the financial, organizational and legal mechanisms for connecting Ukrainian research infrastructures to European research infrastructure consortia.
It is hoped that in the first months of 2022 the Verkhovna Rada will ratify the Agreement on Ukraine’s accession to the Horizon Europe program. According to Hryhoriy Mozolevych, this will open a number of opportunities for Ukrainian scientists, innovators, entrepreneurs and, in general, for the innovation sphere. To implement the Agreement, we want to establish a “Horizon Europe” Coordination Center and launch its national portal, as well as create a strong team of national contact points that would work to ensure that Ukrainian scientists succeed in the program.
It is also planned to expand Ukraine’s participation in the EUREKA program, join the COST European Cooperation in Science and Innovation program, intensify Ukraine’s participation in the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), and further develop marine research. As Svit reported, in 2021 the Ukrainian scientific fleet was replenished with the Noosphere icebreaker and the Boris Aleksandrov scientific vessel.
The President of Ukraine also signed a Decree on measures to restore and develop marine research.
In 2022, work will continue on creation of the National Electronic Scientific Information System (URIS). In addition, it is planned to further improve the policy of internationalization of research and innovation by conducting an inventory, analyzing bilateral agreements and developing a system for monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of international agreements.
Svit newspaper, № 1 – 2, January, 2022