Kyiv — Wooden boards line the entry corridor, replacing windows shattered by a recent Russian drone attack near the school’s campus, 20 miles south of Ukraine’s capital. The principal says they could become a permanent fixture, as repairs would cost $500,000.
Inside, children sit next to old Soviet guns — gifts from their parents’ military units — leaning against the classroom walls as they tinker with sleek, first-person-view (FPV) drones spread out across tables.
Tech Explorers, an educational program run by the Ukrainian nonprofit group Dignitas, operates free after-school sessions for children of Ukrainian service members, focused on teaching them science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
The underlying purpose of the lessons, the instructors told CBS News, is not to shy away from the realities of Ukraine’s four-and-a-half year war with Russia, but to lean into them.
The students learn how to fly, build and repair FPV drones — technology that has transformed the modern battlefield in Ukraine.
Drones now account for 90% of the casualties being sustained by both sides, according to estimates by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, but they are also increasingly used for logistics, medical evacuations and in civilian sectors such as agriculture and delivery services.
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On one end of the classroom, three elementary school-aged boys use computer simulators to fly FPV drones in video game settings such as amusement parks and racetracks. On the other side, another group is busy pressing buttons on a 3D printer, programming it to build new frames for drones. In the school’s basement, another cohort flies completed miniature drones through hoops and ladders.
Eduard, 14, whose father is a Ukrainian infantryman, has become such a talented pilot that he’s started assistant-teaching the lessons.
“I got my first computer when the war started, because I needed to study online,” he said, noting that his online class time soon extended into time spent on a drone simulator.
After practicing on the computer, Eduard began entering recreational drone racing competitions in Kyiv.
“Now I don’t often play the simulator, because that’s less interesting to me than flying real drones,” he said. “I have my 5-inch drone and a couple days ago I built my own 10-inch drone.”
While Eduard and his students chase their drones around the basement, their instructor Sasha sees a more serious mission unfolding.
“We don’t know how long this war will last,” he said. “It is an opportunity for children to improve their technical knowledge and be useful in the future in their country and in various ways.”
With a son at home who just turned 1 year old, Sasha was originally conflicted about whether to teach young children how to fly drones, which are still primarily used in the country by its military.
He decided that kids need to learn skills to prepare them for life in a country that has been transformed by the war, and he called the after-school lessons “a significant step for them to achieve good future professions.”
Ukraine’s burgeoning defense and technology industries have become increasingly important national economic assets. The country’s IT sector now makes up over 3% of Ukraine’s GDP, and this year, Ukraine’s projected defense production capacity is $55 billion, roughly a quarter of its total economic output.
As Ukraine adjusts to the ways the war has transformed its people and institutions, schools across the country have woven basic medicine and pre-military training into their curriculums.
But, Sasha notes, Tech Explorers takes a different approach, training children not out of necessity — but instead searching for individual passions in the new spaces the war has created.
For some of his students, the approach seems to be working.
“I didn’t really like engineering before,” Eduard told CBS News, admiring the drones on the table beside him. “But when I started flying and learning about drones, I liked it more, and now I really like it. Now I want to go to engineering college.”
