Priority: Affordable and quality pre-school education

The purpose of the reform — each child will have access to quality pre-school education

Key Results

New pre-school facilities (including private) have been opened, and more places have been created in the existing pre-school institutions. 71,675 additional places for pre-school kids were created in Ukraine from 2017 to 2019. The queues for attendance of pre-school institutions have decreased — as of the end of 2019 they included 26,783 children (compared to 95,900 kids in 2014). Additional places continue to be created even during the difficult pandemic times: over 3,000 additional places in the first half of 2020. There is a tendency to alleviating the burden placed on pre-school facilities. According to the State Statistics Service, 100 places are being used to educate 105 children (as compared to 108 in 2018).

Requirements for opening and operation of private pre-school institutions have been liberalised (by amending Educational Activity Licensing Terms). Pre-school facilities are now authorised to enter into contracts with legal entities or individual entrepreneurs to provide catering and medical care services to kids. Pre-school facilities may invite both teachers and other specialists having proper qualification and expertise to render services during the educational process.

Over the past two years, the number of children with special educational needs who are learning in inclusive pre-school groups has increased by 2.1 times (to 4,681 kids as of 01 January 2020).

The basic arrangements for inclusive groups in pre-school setting have been defined to respect the right of pre-school children with special educational needs to learn at home, adapt socially and prepare for training at the next level.

The state budget subsidies were provided to local budgets in 2019 for the provision of psychological, pedagogical, correctional and developmental services to children with special educational needs learning in inclusive pre-school groups. UAH 37,230 in 2019 and UAH 87,572 in 2020 were allocated for correctional and developmental classes and special tools needed to educate pupils in inclusive pre-school groups. 

Why change anything? 

The key problem is that the existing capacities fail to meet the kids’ pre-school learning needs. A large number of children have no access to quality pre-school education and, therefore, fewer opportunities for their holistic development and future school training success, which may sometimes heighten social inequality over time.

There are a number of issues that need to be addressed in pre-school education:

•  queues for attendance of pre-school institutions in large cities and suburban areas, which contribute to the exceedance of pre-school group limits and deterioration of working and learning conditions;

• the private pre-school network should be expanded and the existing unlicensed pre-school centres should be duly registered and certified;

•  pre-school teachers have the worst working conditions of all educators: they have the highest weekly workload (30 hours) paid on a part-time basis (the majority are paid 0.85—0.9 of the official salary). This results in a lack of young professionals and unfilled vacancies in pre-school facilities.

Pre-school education quality is not guaranteed by access to it. This means the need to improve the content of pre-school education, create inclusive learning opportunities, retrain teachers, ensure transition between pre-school and first grade primary school, work with parents of pre-school kids for the unity of educational influences in the family and pre-school setting, and build a modern environment in pre-school institutions.

What does the reform include?

The Government and local authorities are taking consistent steps to overcome the aforesaid issues. In particular, they:

• develop a network of various types of pre-school institutions of all ownership forms which offer pre-school services, and decrease the queue for attendance (create additional places);

• work to enhance prestige of pre-school educator work and status by: extending their annual leave to 56 calendar days and reducing comprehensive pre-school institution teacher weekly workload from 30 to 25 hours, and creating opportunities for their professional growth;

• update pre-school training content to ensure transition between pre-school and first grade primary school; 

• use modern teaching techniques and methodologies in pre-school facilities;

• create a modern, safe and comfortable educational environment;

• arrange opportunities for teaching children older than 2 years with special educational needs in pre-school setting;

• build the pre-school quality assurance system.

Goals and Objectives

• To improve pre-school education laws:

to adopt Law of Ukraine “On Pre-school Education” (as amended);

to amend the Pre-school Institution Regulations; 

to update the state standard for pre-school education, a basic pre-school education component;

• to create additional places, including in private pre-school facilities, for the purpose of reducing queues;

• to offer a range of forms and types of advanced training to pre-school teachers;

• to assess pre-school education quality using the ECERS (Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale) tool.

Entities involved in the reform implementation

The Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine

The Institute for Education Development 

References and Links

Summary of Public Consultations 

ECERS-3 (Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale)

Priority: New Ukrainian School

The purpose of the reform — each student will have equal access to quality school education in a safe, comfortable, inclusive and contemporary training environment; graduates will have solid knowledge and essential skills for modern life, are self-sufficient, creative and innovative.

Key Results

The Verkhovna Rada has adopted Law of Ukraine “On Complete General Secondary Education” which includes the following innovations: students can choose their educational trajectory, student self-governance, opportunities to build a high specialised school network, more options for professional growth of teachers and raising their salaries, teaching internships, contracts for principals and retired teachers, etc.

The new content for primary school education has been defined: the Government has approved the State Standard of Primary Education implementing the competency-based approach and integrating educational areas in primary school, and standard educational programmes for grades 1—4 of general secondary schools. Nearly a million of students are already studying at the New Ukrainian School.

The development and support of teachers have been ensured by: creating opportunities for choosing the subjects, forms and types of professional growth and introducing the teacher certification process (705 primary school teachers have been successfully certified and got a 20% salary supplement).

The supervision system has been put in place by adopting the supervisor training programme and supervision plan to provide teachers with professional support, individual assistance and mentoring, which facilitate professional growth, achieving the goals of the reform and overcoming challenges.

Educational subsidies from the state budget to local budgets in 2020 amounted to UAH 79.7 billion. It was the first time in 2020 that educational subsidies were calculated based on the enrolment statistics effective as of 05 September 2019, which helped make more proportional educational allocations to local budgets empowering local governments to set the highest possible allowances and increments for teachers.

Targeted subsidies have been introduced to improve school facilities and resources. Programmes for the procurement of furniture, digital equipment, primary school handouts, school buses have been implemented over the past three years, and the Efficient School and STEM education subventions have been added this year.

The Government has approved the Teacher Career Development Centre Regulations. The centres will summarise and disseminate information about the opportunities for the professional development of teachers: training courses, web resources and other tools useful for their professional growth.

A hub school network has been built: as of June 2020, 77,581 students have been transported to and from 912 institutions. 

Ukraine participated in the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) for the first time in 2018 and organised national monitoring studies dedicated to the implementation of the New Ukrainian School concept. These studies will help identify school quality trends and how they are influenced by the reform.

Inclusion in secondary education. The number of students with special educational needs studying in inclusive classes of secondary schools has increased by 7.1 times over the past five years. The number of inclusive classes has increased by 5 times and schools with such classes — by 3.7 times over the past four years. Inclusive training services were provided in 35% of general secondary schools in 2019—2020 academic year.

610 inclusive resource centres (IRC) and 25 inclusive education support centres have been established in all regions of Ukraine. 699 sets of current global methodologies of an integrated assessment of child development have been purchased, and “coaches for coaches” have been trained. For the first time, IRC psychologists (869 specialists) have been taught to use the modern methodologies. These courses were funded from the state budget. UAH 175 mln have been spent for the procurement of IRC buses.

IRC automated operation has been ensured to provide parents (other legal representatives of the child) with access to IRC services.

Why change anything?

The critical issues of complete general secondary education still remain: significant regional differences in the quality of education and, hence, learning outcomes; the unfinished New Ukrainian School component of the reform; teachers have a low social status depriving teachers and managers of educational institutions of motivation for professional development; teachers and managers of educational institutions are unwilling to work under the conditions of autonomy and academic freedom; outdated facilities and resources fail to motivate students for learning and personal development.

The number of students with special educational needs in general secondary education is increasing each year, which mean that we should create an educational environment with comfortable, favourable and equal opportunities for learning and meeting the inclusion index criteria.

If these issues are overlooked, Ukrainians will have low confidence in the national education system, students will be discouraged to learn and many of them will choose to go abroad to study in foreign universities.

What does the reform include?

Continued implementation of the New Ukrainian School concept:

• updating the content of basic education and teaching methodologies so that they help develop the key skills essential in adult life. In particular, they include the Ukrainian language fluency, mathematics, cultural and environmental competences, entrepreneurship and innovativeness, economic knowledge, etc. Students should also learn essential skills such as: critical and operational thinking, creativity, proactivity, efficient emotion management, risk assessment, decision-making, etc.;

• creating conditions for specialised education: approval of the Specialized Education Development Roadmap, defining the content of training and building a network of academic and vocational lyceums. An academic lyceum is the place where students will expand their knowledge and prepare for entering a higher educational institution, while a vocational lyceum is the school teaching students their first profession in addition to the disciplines included in the general secondary education curriculum;

• creating opportunities for professional development and supporting teachers by: introducing teaching internships and a new remuneration principle, gradually increasing salaries for teachers. The reform also includes identification of and offering incentives to expert teachers who know how to use and promote the competency-based learning techniques and the latest educational technology;

• developing distance and mixed-type learning, continued digitalisation of education, in particular, by launching the national educational e-platform for distance learning, and building an examination centre network;

• creating in general secondary schools a safe educational environment free from all forms of violence and discrimination and a new educational space in line with the motivating and creative design, maintainability and inclusiveness principles. Appropriation of funds from the state budget of Ukraine for the New Ukrainian School component of the reform and the Efficient School programme; educational subsidies from the state budget to local budgets for supporting persons with special educational needs and other programmes;

• ensuring accessibility of education for children with special educational needs;

• ensuring accessibility of extracurricular learning, including in general secondary schools, taking into account students’ needs and individual capabilities;

• improving the quality of psychological services rendered in educational institutions;

• Offering students vocational guidance taking into account their interests and capabilities.

Goals and Objectives

• Approving the State Standard of Basic Secondary Education and standard curricula for grades 5—9 of general secondary schools;

• approving the Specialised Education Roadmap and the development concept for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) learning;

• updating educational environments by the implementation of the Efficient School for Better Results project; purchasing furniture, learning equipment and teaching aids for primary schools; providing students with textbooks (for grades 3 and 7); establishing STEM-laboratories, providing general secondary schools with access to high-speed internet;

• approving regulations on distance general secondary learning and preparing guidelines for the operation of educational institutions in 2020—2021 academic year in the context of the coronavirus infection pandemic (COVID-19);

• procurement of school buses and arranging transportation of secondary students to/from schools;

• creating opportunities for professional development of teachers:

designing a new state system of teacher remuneration; building a network of professional development centres for teachers; introducing teaching internships; 

completing the pilot teacher certification project;

approving professional standards by the following job positions: teacher of a general secondary educational institution and manager of a general secondary educational institution;

amending Law of Ukraine “On Extracurricular Education” and approving the Extracurricular Educational Institution Regulations.

Entities involved in the reform implementation

The Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine

The Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine

The State Service of Education Quality of Ukraine

The Ukrainian Centre for Education Quality Assessment

The Institute for Education Development 

References and Links

New Ukrainian School website

Law of Ukraine “On Education” presentation

The National Report on the Results of the 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA-2018)

Priority: Modern professional education

The purpose of the reform — a competitive vocational education system meeting the labour market and people’s needs for professional fulfilment.

Why change anything?

Vocational education is a part of the Ukrainian education system offering individuals of any age an opportunity to get professional knowledge and skills. Vocational schools must provide quality training to make graduates capable of competing in the labour market and properly fulfil their job duties. Some institutions have outdated equipment (sometimes depreciated up to 60%) due to systemic lack of infrastructure and educational process funding. The training content and teaching methodologies fail to meet the labour market needs, and cooperation between vocational schools, local authorities and business is weak and insufficient.

Another issue to be addressed by the reform is the low public profile of secondary vocational education. As a result, two thirds of general school graduates choose higher education. A third of those currently unemployed are under 35 years of age. This labour market imbalance ultimately decreases the efficiency of educational institutions.

The professional education reform is necessary to ensure that everyone can study in a comfortable environment to learn the professional skills needed in the labour market.

What does the reform include?

The professional education reform includes the following strategic goals:

• creating an effective unified professional education system through the convergence and integration of vocational and undergraduate forms of training, which meets the labour market needs;

• updating the training content and improving vocational education quality in line with employer needs;

• enhancing the appeal of vocational education among stakeholders and in society in general.

Goals and Objectives 

• Developing and submitting to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine draft Law of Ukraine “On Vocational Education”;

• further transfer of public vocational schools managed by the Ministry of Education and Science to local communities;

• opening modern training and practice centres in 53 designated professional (vocational) schools;

• involving more international partners in the reform, assisting in the execution and ratification of the Vocational Education and Training (VET) in the Eastern Partnership Agreement between the Government of Ukraine and the Government of Germany (the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (German: Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung, BMZ);

• approving guidelines for the development of professional (vocational) education standards on the competency-based learning principle;

• providing regional vocational education boards with guidance in designing regional plans for the network development;

• holding nationwide professional expertise contests, such as WorldSkills.

Entities involved in the reform implementation

The Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and institutions operating within its jurisdiction

The National Qualifications Agency of Ukraine

EU4Skills: Better Skills for Modern Ukraine EU-funded programme

The European Foundation for Education

Business companies

References and Links

The of Modern Professional (Vocational) Education Concept to 2027 and the Action Plan

Priority: Quality higher education and development of adult education

The purpose of the reform — graduates of higher educational institutions will be competitive workforce with up-to-date knowledge, capable of performing complex tasks, creating quality, innovative and smart products, and sharing the free democratic society values.

Key Results

Transparent funding system has been launched for higher educational institutions based on their educational, research and international performance indicators. In 2020, the Government started funding higher educational institutions based on their performance rather than their staffing schedule.

The Government has implemented the calculation of the indicative cost of higher education to bring the prices for certain training courses in line with actual costs and, therefore, improve the quality of educational services provided to university students.

The Verkhovna Rada has adopted Law of Ukraine “On Undergraduate Education” regulating the elements of corporate governance of institutions; prescribing an efficient process of electing an institution manager; changing the public funding system; removing restrictions by student age or number of diplomas previously received for state-funded training courses; giving students the right to choose the preferred educational process forms; giving universities the right to maintain or transfer their assets if they cease to be higher educational institutions, etc.

The higher education content requirements have been updated — a higher education standards system has been formed in line with the National Qualifications Framework; 98 bachelor’s degree training standards and 45 master’s degree training standards have been approved.

State-reserved places are assigned transparently (targeted placement, broad competition, formula-based distribution) on the state-funded-places-for-best-enrolees principle, and prospective students have also been given the opportunity to enter universities of their dream.

Enrolment to higher educational institutions: the percentage of enrolees who got state-reserved places in universities under 1 or 2 priority applications has increased from 30% in 2016 to approximately 76% in 2019; the state-reserved places assigned on the targeted placement and formula-based distribution principles has increased accordingly from 26.8% to nearly 86% in 2019.

The list of specialities requiring single entrance exam (SEE) in a foreign language using the Exam Focus Complex Tests results was extended from 32 (in 2019) to more than 80 (in 2020) to create equal opportunities and honest admission to master’s degree programmes.

A pilot project has been launched for the implementation of the dual education elements in undergraduate and higher education institutions. Dual education will be tested in 44 undergraduate and higher education institutions for 4 years.

The number of enrolees from the temporarily occupied territories has nearly doubled in the period from 2016 to 2019. Access to higher education has been expanded for enrolees from territories not controlled by Ukraine — they can now enter any Ukrainian university without taking the Exam Focus Complex Tests.

Why change anything?

The main challenge of higher education is that graduates are unable to reach their full potential in the Ukrainian labour market. This issue directly affects university students and, indirectly, society in general, because it cannot develop adequately without skilled workforce.

The quality of higher education fails to meet expectations of employers, students and society. The funding and management system does not offer incentives to high-end teachers and best performing universities. Young people who lack knowledge, skills or motivation necessary for getting higher education are often admitted to universities.

Ukraine does not have enough dynamic data on employer and student assessments of the quality of higher education and how curricula meet the labour market needs. Employment of graduates is not monitored.

What does the reform include?

The current state policy is aimed to increase the autonomy of higher education institutions, provide transparent and equal access to quality higher education and step up the entrance requirements for enrolees.

Setting the stage to help higher education institutions gain broad autonomy (including financial independence) and work more effectively, by: developing the regulatory framework and providing higher education institutions with information and guidance on the new opportunities to manage funds independently, define their organisational structure and remuneration system, raise donations and investments freely while remaining a non-profit organisation with all tax benefits.

An efficient higher education quality assurance system committed to and operating on the academic integrity principles: energetic efforts are being made in a number of areas: deregulation of licensing, discontinuation of government-approved format diplomas, mandatory curriculum accreditation, institutional accreditation of higher educational institutions.

Improving specialist training and enforcing the integrity and equality principles in the higher education institutions admission process: state-reserved places will continue to be assigned in a broad competition in line with the enrolee’s priorities; organisation and procedure of the Exam Focus Complex Tests will be expanded for a foreign language exam taken to get to the second (master’s degree) level of higher education in certain specialities.

 Promoting lifelong learning: normalisation of lifelong learning processes, taking measures to ensure that learning outcomes of non-formal and informal education are recognised in the formal education system.

Goals and Objectives

• Setting the basis for financial autonomy of higher education institutions operation;

• Expanded use of the state budget allocation formula for higher educational institutions;

• changing approaches to university management (key performance indicators for managers, supervisory committees in the higher education institution management system, managerial autonomy of higher education institutions, crisis management, talent pipeline);

• deregulation of licensing terms and e-licensing of higher education activities;

• launching e-monitoring of employment of higher educational institution graduates;

• expanding access to Ukrainian higher education institutions for enrolees living in the temporarily occupied territories;

• developing and testing draft Dual Higher Education Regulations;

• introducing a single state qualification exam using the Exam Focus Complex Tests for specialities required to access additionally regulated occupations;

• executing a loan agreement between Ukraine and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development for supporting the higher education reforms;

• developing and submitting to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine draft Law “On Adult Education”.

Entities involved in the reform implementation

The Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine

The Ukrainian Centre for Education Quality Assessment

The National Agency for Higher Education Quality Assurance

The National Qualifications Agency of Ukraine

Priority: Development of science and innovation

The purpose of the reform is to form a new efficient science management and funding system creating for Ukrainian scientists the opportunities for professional fulfilment, development and integration into the global scientific area, and to build an innovative ecosystem to enable each Ukrainian inventor transform creative ideas into innovative products and services quickly and efficiently.

Key Results

The first contests of the National Research Foundation have been launched. These contests are held as part of research and scientific and engineering projects — Science for Human and Social Security, and Support of Leading and Young Scientist Research. Nearly UAH 300 mln were allocated for the Fund and the winning projects in 2020.

The young scientist contest budget has been increased by more than 8 times over 4 years of its history, to UAH 100 mln. This allowed the Ministry of Education and Science funding 199 research projects of young scientists in 2020. Presidential and governmental scholarships for young scientists have also more than doubled.

15 shared research equipment centres have been opened in higher education institutions. Bureaucratic burden in research has been reduced, in particular: the procedure for precursor use for teaching and research in educational and research institutions has been streamlined; outdated regulations which required the Ministry of Education and Science authorisation of international business trips have been cancelled; restrictions on increasing the number of employees of subordinate institutions have been lifted.

255 research institutions have been certified in line with the new regulations — by using of uniform criteria and inviting external experts.

A new search engine for scientists — Open Ukrainian Citation Index — has been launched. It can be freely accessed by everyone. The engine is designed to help find scientific publications and analyse citations. OUCI is the first component of the future Ukrainian Research Information System, URIS.

Why change anything?

Ukrainian scientists, particularly young researchers, currently have limited opportunities and generally unsatisfactory conditions for their professional fulfilment in science. There is virtually no motivation for them to stay in science.

This results in massive brain drain — scientists migrate abroad or to other areas. The number of researchers in Ukraine has decreased by nearly three times since 2010: from 133.7 thousand to 51.1 thousand in 2019.

R&D intensity, i.e. R&D expenditure as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) remains critically low in Ukraine. In 2019, R&D intensity was 0.43% (a record low for the past 10 years), and 0.17% in the state budget expenditure. For reference: according to 2018 data, the average R&D intensity of the EU-28 member states was 2.12%.

Commercialisation of research and technical inventions and transfer of technology levels are low, and participation in innovative activities is not considered to be appealing.

For instance, only 13.8% of industrial enterprises implemented innovations (products and/or manufacturing processes) last year.

What does the reform include?

Changes in funding: expanding tools and channels for both budgetary and extrabudgetary support of scientists; creating an environment for the effective use of international opportunities; reducing bureaucratic restrictions; using research assessment to define the level of budget support; developing the research and innovation infrastructure; direct support of innovative activities by the state.

Changes in management: reforming the academies of sciences system and creating an environment for the efficient operation of the National Council for Science and Technology Development and the National Council for Innovation Development.

Goals and Objectives

• To implement the procedure for accession to Horizon Europe, the EU Research and Innovation Framework Programme;

• updating the Ukraine’s integration into the European Research Area (ERA-UA) Roadmap and approving the National Action Plan;

• extending and implementing the state targeted polar research programme;

• approving the state programme for research infrastructure development, and the state policy concept for e-infrastructure development, including the action plans;

• simplifying requirements for academic mobility and using foreign grants;

• legislative arrangements to address the issues related to the operation of the National Research Fund of Ukraine;

• ensuring provision of the first grants by the National Research Foundation;

• accreditation of research and higher educational institutions for scientific activities;

• launching a contest for scientists and innovative enterprises as part of the EU-funded Horizon 2020 programme in Ukraine; 

• making a new list of priorities for research and innovation development;

• designing and launching an online communication platform for consultations between researchers, business and the Government;

• opening pilot regional technology transfer centres (in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Odesa).

Entities involved in the reform implementation

The Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine

The National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and national sectoral academies of sciences, 

The National Research Foundation of Ukraine

The National Council of Ukraine for Science and Technology Development

The Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine

The Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine

References and Links

The Innovation Development Strategy to 2030

Open Ukrainian Citation Index