On June 2-18, 2020, the Ministry of Education and Science together with the National Democratic Institute and the All-Ukrainian Initiative “Active Community” (“Aktyvna Hromada”) conducted a series of public consultations on the implementation of the State Standard of Basic Secondary Education.

In total, 6 public consultations took place, in which about 700 participants from all over Ukraine took part. In particular, in terms of presence by regions: north – 21.97%, central Ukraine – 20.8%, south – 19.83%, east – 20.27%, west – 17.12%.

5 target audiences were involved in the discussion:

– teachers, author teams, advanced training institutions (46.21%);

– managers (27.25%)

– scientists, namely: scientific institutions, scientific experts (12.13%);

– parents (9.84%);

– public organizations (3.14%).

Vitalii Hlizhynskyi, Coordinator of the All-Ukrainian Initiative “Active Community”, Head of the public consultation project, pointed out: “Public consultations online, at the level of the Ministry, involving more than 100 persons are unique in the world practice”.

“We can safely congratulate Ukraine on this. These consultations are very important, as they concern the reform of the education system and it is very important to communicate with those who will implement these changes locally”,  – Vitalii Hlizhynskyi said.

To better understand the needs of the audience, participants were asked to complete an online survey. Among 328 completed questionnaires in the online format, the most active survey participants: age – 46-55 years old, by gender: female – 91.16%, male – 8.84%. Regarding the place of residence, 72.87% of participants belong to urban areas and another 27.13% are residents of villages.

By regional division: Kyiv – 10.37%, north – 21.34%, center – 23.78%, south – 10.98%, east – 18.90%, west – 14.63% of participants.

While working in groups, the participants had the opportunity to discuss the following issues:

–  roadmap for the implementation of the State Standard of Basic Secondary Education;

– variable structure of a typical educational program and typical curricula;

– ways to implement educational areas through subjects and integrated courses;

– availability of educational institutions to organize the educational process according to their own educational programs;

– availability оf teachers to create and implement their own programs;

– attitude to the integration of knowledge and the implementation of integrated courses in the educational process.

The recommendations developed during each public consultation will be taken into account during the finalization of the Roadmap, development of a Model Educational Program, curricula and model training programs.

Note. Public consultations are conducted by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine with the support of the National Democratic Institute (NDI), the All-Ukrainian Initiative “Active Community” from the Institute Respublika and with the support of the UK Government and the Good Governance Fund.

Author: Head of the Press Service of the All-Ukrainian Initiative “Active Community”

Tetiana Kavunenko