Education in Ukraine

The Ukrainian education system consists of educational institutions, scientific, methodological and methodological institutions, research and production enterprises, state and local education administration and self-government bodies in the field of education.

According to analysts at the American Center for Strategic and International Studies, Ukraine inherited a talented and highly educated population from the Ukrainian SSR , but chronic underfunding of the education system threatens to undermine this positive quality. In a survey report for the US-European partnership, 16 years of Ukrainian independence are assessed with data for 2008. As the drafters of this document write, the Ukrainian education system is unreformable and ineffective. And bribery when students enter higher education institutions and when they pass exams worsens the already not brilliant situation ^[2] .

According to Professor O. Bazaluk, in 2016, the Ukrainian population has a low level of education, and its quality has turned into a fiction. Ukrainian diplomas of secondary and higher education do not correspond to the world level, and most graduates of secondary and higher educational institutions fail to acquire even basic knowledge and skills. Due to corruption (see corruption in Ukraine ) and inefficient state policy in the education system, Ukrainian society began to show features that were previously not noticeable: aggressiveness, rudeness, intolerance, indifference to others, etc. ^[3] If in Soviet times of the Ukrainian SSR had a powerful scientific and technical potential, the post-2015 in Ukraine was left of modern industry and the country in its development lagged behind not only by the States parties of the former Warsaw Pact , but also from many ex-owl Republics ^[4] . Over the years of independence, the quality of Ukrainian secondary, specialized secondary and higher education has fallen significantly. During the reign of President Leonid Kuchma, the Soviet education system was destroyed, but a new, more efficient one was not built. During the presidency of Viktor Yushchenko , an attempt was made to introduce European standards of instruction into the Ukrainian mass consciousness, but the results were disastrous ^[5] .

The system of preschool education includes a network of preschool educational institutions, scientific and methodological institutions, educational authorities, family.

Preschool educational institutions:

• preschool educational institutions (nurseries);
• preschool educational institutions (nursery schools);
• preschool educational institutions (kindergartens);
• compensatory type preschool educational institutions (day nurseries);
• child’s home;
• preschool educational institutions (orphanages) of a boarding type;
• preschool educational institutions (nursery schools) of a family type;
• preschool educational institutions (nursery schools) of a combined type;
• preschool educational institutions (child development centers).

Public Policy

In the direction of forming a network of educational institutions, the state guarantees the constitutional right for every citizen to access and free full secondary education.

Structure

The network of general educational institutions is formed taking into account the demographic, ethnic and socio-economic situation at educational levels. In accordance with the educational level, general educational institutions of the first degree function (elementary school); II degree (basic school); III degree (high school). General educational institutions of all three degrees can function integrated or independently.

Education in a secondary school begins at the age of six or seven. General secondary education is compulsory and is obtained in various types of educational institutions, mainly in secondary schools. It has three degrees:

I - primary school (grades 1-4), provides primary general education, II - primary school (grades 5-9), provides basic general secondary education; ІІІ - high school (grades 10-11), provides complete general secondary education.

Extracurricular education is a component of the continuing education system defined by the Constitution of Ukraine, the laws of Ukraine "On Education", "On Extracurricular Education", and is aimed at developing the abilities and gifts of pupils, students and students, satisfying their interests, spiritual needs and needs for professional determination.

In Ukraine, there are 1496 out-of-school educational institutions of the system of the Ministry of Education and Science, Youth and Sports of Ukraine of state and communal ownership.

Types of extracurricular educational institutions:

1. Children and youth sports schools.
2. Clubs: military-patriotic education, children and youth (sailors, rivermen, aviators, astronauts, paratroopers, paratroopers, border guards, radio operators, firefighters, motorists, local historians, tourists, ethnographers, folklorists, physical training and other directions).
3. Small Academy of Arts (folk crafts).
4. Small Academy of Sciences of studying youth.
5. Children and youth camps.
6. Center, palace, house, club of children's art, youth and youth, artistic and aesthetic creativity of students, children and youth creativity, aesthetic education.
7. Center, home, club of ecological and naturalistic creativity of students, station of young naturalists.
8. Center, home, club of scientific and technical creativity of students, station of young technicians.
9. Center, home, club, bureau of tourism, local history, sports and excursions for students, tourist and regional studies of students, station for young tourists.
10. Centers: military-patriotic and other areas of extracurricular education.
11. Children's flotilla of sailors and rivermen.

Vocational education is carried out on the basis of complete general secondary education or basic general secondary education with the provision of the opportunity to receive full secondary education.

The system of vocational schools provides three-level vocational education. Each degree of training is determined by theoretical and practical completeness and is fixed by assigning graduates with the appropriate qualifications. Graduates of the lowest degree, at their own request, can continue their studies at the highest.

Vocational schools include:

• vocational school of the corresponding profile;
• vocational school of social rehabilitation;
• higher vocational school;
• professional Lyceum;
• professional lyceum of the corresponding profile;
• vocational school;
• art vocational school;
• higher art vocational school;
• agricultural school;
• Higher school-agrofirm;
• school-factory;
• vocational education center;
• vocational education center;
• training and production center;
• center for training and retraining of workers;
• training center;
• The educational center;
• other types of educational institutions providing vocational education or providing vocational education.

Training of workers in the state 930 vocational schools in the 2007-2008 academic year is carried out in 530 occupations.

There is also a network of vocational educational institutions of private ownership, which are also in the field of vocational education and number 798 educational institutions with a contingent of 100 thousand people who receive vocational training in 179 working professions.

The average rate of employment of graduates of state vocational schools in the acquired profession in Ukraine in the 2006-2007 academic year is 86%. ^[6]

Higher education is the level of education that a person acquires at a higher educational institution as a result of a consistent, systematic and purposeful process of mastering the content of education, which is based on full general secondary education and ends with a certain qualification based on the results of state certification ^[7] .

Higher education is carried out on the basis of complete general secondary education. Persons with basic general secondary education may be admitted to higher education institutions providing training for junior specialists.

Bologna Process

In May 2005, Ukraine joined the Bologna process at the Conference of European Ministers in Bergen . As a participant in the Bologna process, Ukraine must solve a number of key key tasks, which include the introduction by 2010 of standards, recommendations and the main instruments of the European Higher Education Area: a national qualifications framework, an innovative European credit transfer system, and a European diploma supplement.

March 4, 2008 in Brussels (Belgium) Ukraine became a full-fledged government member of the European Register of Quality Assurance (EQAR). The government members of this registry are 18 countries participating in the Bologna process.

Structure

Higher educational institutions are: technical school (college), college, institute, conservatory, academy, university and others.

For higher education institutions, four levels of accreditation are established:

1. The first level is a technical school, school, other equivalent higher educational institutions;
2. The second level is college, other equivalent higher education institutions;
3. Third and fourth levels (depending on the consequences of accreditation) - conservatory, academy, institute, university.

Educational Levels:

• initial level (short cycle) of higher education;
• first (bachelor's) level;
• second (master) level;
• third (educational-scientific / educational-creative) level;

Educational qualification levels:

• Junior Bachelor
• bachelor;
• master.

Postgraduate education is a specialized improvement of the education and professional training of a person by deepening, expanding and updating his professional knowledge, skills and other professions, specialties on the basis of previously obtained educational qualification level and practical experience ^[1] .

Postgraduate education creates the conditions for the continuity and continuity of education and includes:

• retraining - obtaining another specialty on the basis of the previously obtained educational qualification level and practical experience;
• specialization - the acquisition by a person of the ability to perform individual tasks and duties that have characteristics, within the specialty;
• profile expansion (advanced training) - the acquisition by a person of the ability to perform additional tasks and responsibilities within the specialty;
• Internship - the acquisition by a person of experience in performing tasks and duties of a particular specialty.

For self-education of citizens by state bodies, enterprises, institutions, organizations, associations of citizens, citizens, open and popular universities, lectures, libraries, centers, clubs, television and radio programs, etc. are created ^[1]

Ukrainian universities use the traditional 4-point scale:

• "fine"
• "OK"
• "satisfactorily"
• "Unsatisfactory"

Starting in 2006 (and even earlier in some universities), the quality of students' knowledge is also evaluated on a scale from 0 to 100. These grades can be converted to a 4-point scale as follows (this system may vary slightly in different universities):

• from 90 to 100 - excellent
• from 75 to 89 - “good”
• 55 to 74 — Satisfactory
• from 0 to 54 - "unsatisfactory"

Universities use both of these grading scales.

The high school also used a 5-point scale until 2000. Since 2000, a 12-point scale has been used in secondary education.

• "12" = "5+"
• "11" = "5"
• "10" = "5-"
• "9" = "4+"
• "8" = "4"
• "7" = "4-"
• "6" = "3+"
• "5" = "3"
• “4” = “3-”
• "3" = "2+"
• "2" = "2"
• "1" = "2-"

The ranking of the best universities in the world QS World University Rankings 2014/2015 includes 6 Ukrainian universities. The highest positions are held at Kiev National University (421-430 place) and Kharkov National University (481-490 place) ^[8] .

In 2017, more than 15 thousand schools operated in Ukraine ^[9] . The vast majority - with the Ukrainian language of instruction. Only 735 schools were taught in minority languages ^[9] :

• Russian - 581 schools;
• Romanian - 75 schools;
• Hungarian - 71 schools;
• Moldavian - 3 schools;
• Polish - 5 schools.

As of 2017, about 400 thousand children were studying in these 735 schools ^[10] . According to the official data of the Ukrainian authorities, the level of Ukrainian language proficiency among graduates of these schools is low: in 2016, more than 60% of students from the Hungarian and Romanian national minorities could not pass the exam in the Ukrainian language ^[10] .

In September 2017, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko signed a law providing for the following changes in the field of teaching in the languages ​​of national minorities in schools ^{[9] [11]} :

• Stopping teaching in schools in national minority languages. From 2018 - from 5th grade and older; by 2020 - in full;
• Since 2018, the termination of the publication of textbooks in Russian;
• It is allowed to create separate classes with teaching in the languages ​​of the “indigenous peoples of Ukraine” - Krymchaks , Crimean Tatars and Karaites ;
• It is allowed to teach one or more subjects in schools in the languages ​​of the European Union. .

• Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine (Ukrainian)
• External independent assessment in Ukraine