Catch-Up program

Area

Catch-Up program

This program is one of savED’s key tools for helping students overcome learning losses, developed in partnership with our educational collaborators.

First because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and now due to the full-scale war, many students continue learning fully or partly online. Some primary school children have never attended an offline class at all. Interrupted, inconsistent learning means that children miss out on both knowledge and essential experience.

Learning losses are the topics not mastered on time, the skills and competencies that never fully formed.

To help students catch up and learn everything they are expected to know in school, it is crucial to create dedicated catch-up programs that offer teachers methodological and financial support — and give children additional learning opportunities.

Program achievements

What we’ve accomplished so far

67 800 students

have participated in catch-up programs since the start of the initiative (2024–2025).

337 schools

have joined the programs across the Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Odesa, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, and Kyiv regions

Partners

Those who already support the program

All partners

Our approach

How do catch-ups work?

Everything starts with assessing students’ existing knowledge and skills.

After completing the program, students take another test, and we compare the results with the initial assessment. This allows us to track the program’s effectiveness and adjust content or refine learning materials when needed.

No grades, no pressure — just a friendly atmosphere and a creative teaching approach. This is what made catch-ups genuinely popular among students. Children enjoy the additional classes because the format blends academic tasks with drawing, games, movement activities, and even tea breaks. It gives them a chance to interact with peers and express their talents — things that online learning often limits but that children deeply crave.

Lessons are longer than traditional classes — 60 minutes — but the interactive format helps students absorb material quickly and effectively, while keeping the experience engaging and fun.

Supporting those who teach

Trainings for educators

Although the catch-up program is designed primarily for students, it’s just as important to have teachers by their side—teachers who have the tools and motivation to teach and support them.

That’s why, throughout the implementation of the program, we also run online and offline training sessions for educators.

These trainings serve as a small reset: a moment when a teacher can step away from daily stress and reconnect with the reasons they chose this profession in the first place. They offer new knowledge and skills, as well as a sense of belonging to a professional community that helps educators stay strong for their students. In-person sessions are especially valuable—something schools operating under constant pressure often lack today.