Finland takes part in Ukrainian school reform

A project coordinated by the Ukrainian Ministry of Education and Science, The New Ukrainian School, aims to reform the Ukrainian comprehensive school education and bring it to the 2020s. Finland will support the reform by implementing a project of its own. The project will be funded from Finland's development cooperation appropriations, and Finland's total investment in the project goes up to EUR 6 million.

The New Ukrainian School is a project coordinated by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine aiming to reform the comprehensive school education in Ukraine and to bring it to the 2020s. Many Ukrainians think that the country's school system is still very old-fashioned, and therefore the reform enjoys strong support among the general public. Finland is about to launch wide-ranging cooperation across the education sector in Ukraine, and as part of this cooperation it will support the reform of the Ukrainian education system. The Ukrainian Government proposed cooperation to Finland as Finland's expertise in the education sector is widely recognised and appreciated.

The purpose is to modernise the comprehensive school education in Ukraine so that it meets the requirements of the 2020s, for example by developing pedagogy, curriculums, learning environments, study materials and teacher education. Finland does, indeed, have expertise in all of these areas, thanks to the recent reforms carried out in Finland.

Finland will allocate a total of EUR 6 million to the project, and a Finnish consulting company FCG International will be responsible for its practical implementation. The University of Helsinki will also participate in the implementation. The project will be funded from Finland's appropriations for development cooperation.

The objective of Finland's project, to be carried out in 2018–2022, is to enhance the quality of the Ukrainian education system and to increase public awareness of the reformed comprehensive school education in Ukraine. In addition, Finland will launch the planning of an ancillary project aiming to support the teaching of minority languages in Ukraine during autumn 2018.

According to a preliminary plan, Finland will also be involved in a large-scale EU project for the reform of vocational education and training in Ukraine, Better Skills for Modern Ukraine, together with Germany, Poland and Estonia. The total budget of this project is EUR 50 million, of which EUR 38 million will be funded by the European Union. The project is administered by Germany and it will, according to current estimates, be carried out in 2019–2023. If Finland decides to participate in the project, it will support it with EUR 2 million.

At the moment, vocational education and training (VET) is not considered a very attractive option in Ukraine, and one of the goals of the project is, therefore, to increase its attractiveness. Other objectives include development of the strategic planning and coordination of VET and improvement of the infrastructure of school buildings.

Photo caption: Arto Vaahtokari, Team Leader of Finland's project, participated in one of the panel discussions of the conference. He emphasised the Finnish perspective that focuses on the development of pedagogy.

 

Photo caption: Arto Vaahtokari, Team Leader of Finland's project, participated in one of the panel discussions of the conference. He emphasised the Finnish perspective that focuses on the development of pedagogy.

 

 

The Ukrainian school reform was introduced at an educational conference held in Kyiv on 21 August 2018. Approximately 700 experts in the educational sector from across Ukraine participated in the conference that was opened by the Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.

 

Inquiries:

Jukka Tulivuori, Councellor of Education

Embassy of Finland in Kyiv

Tel. +380 50 419 9933

email: jukka.tulivuori@formin.fi

Photo caption: Arto Vaahtokari, Team Leader of Finland's project, participated in one of the panel discussions of the conference. He emphasised the Finnish perspective that focuses on the development of pedagogy.