30 October 2015, 16:03
In the frames of the Integrity Study of Education System in Ukraine project supported by the Foundation “Open Society” that took place in the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Science and Education, Liliya Hrynevych noted that the "gray zone" of the secondary education in Ukraine was so-called "voluntary fees" of parents and centralized procurements, for instance, of books. The Chairperson of the Committee noted that at present, the Ministry of Education and Science was working on the change of the procurements system to make them transparent. According to the Chairperson, another problem was insufficient transparency in distribution of funds among schools at the regional level. Local budgets unfortunately do not have the formula under which the funds of the central budget are distributed.
According to Liliya Hrynevych, the biggest problem in the field of secondary education is the outdated contents of education when the major focus is made on reception of knowledge instead of competence of future employees. "Our task is to join the international program PISA as we have to know what position Ukraine occupies among other countries in terms of indicators of educational achievements of students," she said. The meeting participants paid attention to the problem of difference between educational establishments in the quality of education and the status of the teacher.
The participants also discussed "gray zones" of the higher education, in particular, bribes and plagiarism. The experts learned attitude of the population to external independent testing and the Chairperson of the Committee thanked Muriel Poisson for fruitful cooperation during establishment of the external independent testing in Ukraine.
Reference information:
The project is aimed at studying so-called "gray zones" in the system of education, which are source of unfairness and corruption. As a result of the research, its participants will elaborate recommendations as to required amendments in the legal framework, policy, etc.
The delegation will visit educational establishments in Poltava, Odesa, Lviv, Kyiv, Zhytomyr and talk to teachers, pedagogues, representatives of authorities and non-government organizations.