Dear Teachers, Academic Staff and Research and Teaching Staff of Cooperative Educational Institutions, Dear Educators,
The Presidency of Ukrkoopspilka and the Presidency of the Central Committee of the Trade Union of Consumer Cooperative Employees of Ukraine sincerely congratulate you on your professional holiday — Education Workers’ Day!
This is a celebration of people who have chosen one of the most responsible and noble professions — to teach and educate, open the world of knowledge to young people, help them grow professionally, and shape their worldview, life values and sense of responsibility for the future of their country. Today, we would like to extend our special words of gratitude to the great educational community of Ukraine’s consumer cooperatives — teachers, lecturers, researchers, heads and all employees of cooperative educational institutions who, through their many years of dedicated work, contribute to the intellectual and human resources potential of the cooperative system and other sectors of Ukraine’s economy. Cooperative education has deep historical roots and a special mission. For generations, it has not only provided professional knowledge but also nurtured people guided by the principles of mutual assistance, solidarity, democracy, responsibility, equality and service to the community. These very principles, which form the foundation of the international cooperative movement, are of particular importance to Ukrainian society today. Thousands of graduates of cooperative educational institutions have, over the years, become professionals, managers, entrepreneurs, researchers and organizers of the cooperative movement. They have worked and continue to work for the development of consumer cooperatives, the economy and local communities. Each of their professional achievements contains a part of your work, knowledge, experience and pedagogical wisdom.
Today, your professional mission is being carried out under extraordinarily difficult circumstances. Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine has presented the education system with unprecedented challenges. Air-raid alerts, danger, forced displacement and psychological strain have become part of our reality. Yet, despite all these trials, cooperative education continues to function and develop. Thanks to your resilience, professionalism and dedication to your work, higher and professional pre-higher educational institutions within the consumer cooperative system continue to educate young people, improve educational programmes, introduce modern technologies, develop academic and research activities, while at the same time preserving the finest traditions of cooperative education. It is particularly valuable that today you do more than simply provide students with professional knowledge. You help young people understand the strength of unity, mutual support and shared responsibility — the principles upon which the cooperative movement has been developing for more than a century and which have demonstrated their vitality so clearly during Ukraine’s most difficult trials.
Indeed, the very nature of cooperation is based on the belief that together people can achieve more than each person can achieve alone. Today, this simple yet profound truth resonates with the resilience of the Ukrainian people as a whole. We are convinced that cooperative educational institutions will also play an important role in Ukraine’s post-war recovery. The professionals you educate will work in trade, entrepreneurship, services and other sectors, create new jobs, contribute to the economic development of communities, revive cooperative entrepreneurship and strengthen the economic capacity of our state.
We sincerely thank each and every one of you for your professionalism and teaching excellence, for your research and creativity, for your ability to evolve alongside modern education while at the same time preserving the valuable legacy built by generations of cooperators and educators. Thank you for your daily support of students, for your humanity and compassion, and for your faith in young people. Thanks to you, cooperative educational institutions remain not only places where people acquire professions, but also centres of knowledge, culture, partnership, mutual respect and cooperative solidarity.
We bow our heads in memory of those whose lives have been taken by the war.
We express our boundless gratitude to the defenders of Ukraine, whose courage gives us the opportunity to teach and learn, to work, to preserve our educational institutions and to make plans for the future. On this festive day, we wish you good health, resilience, inexhaustible energy, creative inspiration and new professional achievements. May the gratitude of your students and graduates warm your hearts, may the achievements of those you have educated reaffirm your faith in the importance of your work, and may each new day give you strength and confidence in the future.
May your families be filled with well-being and harmony, may your workplaces be united by mutual support and solidarity, and may cooperative educational institutions continue to be a strong link in Ukraine’s consumer cooperative system, strengthening its intellectual potential and honouring its proud traditions.
We wish all of us the Vctory for Ukraine, a just and lasting peace, the return of our defenders to their families, and the reconstruction and prosperity of the Ukrainian state. May the power of knowledge, the power of unity and the power of cooperation help us create the future together! Our sincere gratitude to you for your work, resilience and dedication to education, cooperation and Ukraine!
Happy Education Workers’ Day, dear educators!
Illia GOROKHOVSKYI Chairman of the Council Ukrainian Central Union of Consumer Societies
Iryna LOPUSHANSKA Chairwoman of the Central Committee Trade Union of Consumer Cooperative Employees of Ukraine
Lidiia VOINASH Member of the Presidency of Ukrkoopspilka, Director of the Department of Education and Science, Director of the “Ukooposvita” Scientific and Methodological Centre
