STRONG
RESPONSIBLE
BRAVE
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION
AND SCIENCE OF UKRAINE:
SUSTAINABILITY OF CHANGES
IN SHORT POLITICAL CYCLES
LILIA HRYNEVICH
Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine (2016-2019),
Participant of the School of Strategic Architect of the fourth set
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Stable, balanced solutions
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Sequence of changes
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A mutually beneficial partnership
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Education of a new elite
WE MUST AWARE THAT THE EDUCATION SYSTEM PREPARES PEOPLE FOR THE FUTURE AND SHOULD AHEAD PROCESSES IN SOCIETY.
The education system must be very aware of and oriented towards the future needs of children. Those first-graders who are now entering school will be in the active phase of their work approximately in 20-25 years. Technology is developing so rapidly that it is very difficult to predict what will happen even in 10 years, let alone 20. It is clear that people need more soft skills. It is obvious that you need to learn to think critically, because the flows of information that have to be processed are extremely large.
Through the opinion of employers, parents, people from outside the system, we see that the traditional school does not give children the necessary opportunities to be able to respond to all these challenges. In this way, the idea of reform emerges, when we have an audit of the problems that society makes, not only within the system, but also from the outside.
WE ARE ALL THINKING ABOUT HOW TO EDUCATE THE NEW UKRAINIAN ELITE.
THE ELITE, WHO WILL LEAD THE SOCIETY. THE ELITE THAT IS ABLE TO SERVE.
I rethought it at the School of Strategic Architects, and today for me it is one of the components that must be included in the educational system in Ukraine.
When people in leadership positions have a vision, they can push this process further. We have to have our strategic idea with which we go forward. And we had to write down a goal for ourselves and understand the concept that we are all working towards as a community.
Communication was extremely valuable for me personally. At the Strategic Architect School, we created a circle of communication with representatives of people from business, civil service, art, and the public sector. These people, who met regularly, could share their thoughts, presented their own projects to each other. You could hear an opinion, external, unbiased, how people perceive it. This is extremely valuable.
I AM THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION AND I HAVE TO STUDY TOO.
I believe that every person is obliged to learn throughout his life. Any educational institution should be a learning organization. This spirit of restlessness, the search for new solutions and the application of new technologies increases the palette of possibilities. And most importantly, it captures the entire orbit of modern changes. And I am very grateful to fate that I had such an opportunity at the School. I had no idea that I would get so many answers. And this is an extraordinary added value.
At the time of the start of training, we have already started the implementation of the New Ukrainian School project. It was necessary to change the content of education. And we realized that we cannot do it alone. We needed additional organizations to lean on. We started working with the public sector and implementing serious initiatives with them. The new Ukrainian school required mass upgrading of qualifications. Together with EdEra, we developed a course for elementary school teachers, which has already been completed by 100,000 professionals. We were able to get funding to improve school infrastructure. When we had to present distance learning courses for children in the occupied territories, we did it together with Prometheus. We started working closely with local self-government bodies, because they are the founders of educational institutions. But these relations were not always good, often fragmentary.
WE CONSCIOUSLY FOLLOWED THE PATH OF ECOSYSTEM LOGIC, HOWEVER, IT HAD TO BE A CONSCIOUS STRATEGIC DECISION.
At first, our circumstances were extraordinary, because we wanted to start quickly. But now it had to be a stable balanced solution that would attract new entrants into the ecosystem for a mutually beneficial partnership. When at the School of Strategic Architects we analyzed ecosystems, their work, relationships between them, the distribution of roles in them, then I developed a vision of the New Ukrainian School system.
We are already working with EdCamps, which form huge communities of reform change agents. We started carrying out anti-discrimination examination of textbooks together with them, which is one of the important tasks for improving our literature. On the other hand, for example, with GoCamp, we solve the issue of language learning by minorities and organize language camps. This is extremely important and profitable for us and for them. And they get their results too.
I CAN'T STATE RIGHT NOW THAT THE CHANGES ARE IRREVERSIBLE.
Understanding by political elites, in particular the new ones, of the processes taking place in education and science is very important. Continuity is important. For example, in some countries, political parties even sign agreements and memoranda among themselves that they do not advance education reform. If the reform of education has started, then it is necessary to understand that it is a reform for decades and the political elites must contribute to the development of this reform.
We have adopted laws that fix them, but laws can also be amended. My first hope is for society, parents, teachers, employers and the public, who understand the need for a new goal of education and new opportunities that we must give to children. They cannot be taught the way we were taught. This is a large part of society that will support the reform and pressure politicians to continue it.
My second hope is that in this ministry, particularly thanks to our sessions after the School, a vision of change has already been imprinted. It is shared by state experts, directorates, ministry employees, civil servants who do not change as often as ministers. A series of changes will accompany them.
I have a very large team of people behind me, I did not make the changes and reforms myself, whole teams did it and their work was invested in a huge number of changes. Now it is my responsibility to lobby for these changes, changes as politics.
WE
ARE
PROUD
JULIA LYTVYNETS
Director of the National Art Museum of Ukraine
SERGEY BADRITDINOV
CEO INTERTOP Ukraine
SERGEY KASYANCHUK
Director of the representative office
World Congress of Ukrainians in Ukraine