25 future lyceums and conceptual foundations of the reform: a National forum on specialized secondary education was held
On April 3-4, the Reforming Senior Specialized Secondary Education (Academic Lyceums) national forum was held, organized by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine with the expert support of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and organizational support of the DECIDE Swiss-Ukrainian Project: Decentralization for the Development of Democratic Education. The event was attended by teachers, representatives of school administrations and students who shared their vision of the desired changes in learning in high school.
The forum announced preparations for piloting specialized secondary education. In particular, 25 initiative schools from all over Ukraine agreed to be the first to develop and test new educational models and provide recommendations for the implementation of the reform in all educational institutions of the country. We anticipate that these schools will continue to become mentors for pilot academic lyceums, which will begin to test specialized secondary education in 2025.
From 2027, the implementation of the reform of specialized secondary education will begin in Ukraine. Its goal is to ensure freedom of choice and bring specialized education closer to the needs of each student. High school students will be able to choose a training profile, courses and subjects, academic lyceums will conduct high-quality career guidance work and take into account the needs of students in certain courses.
According to the Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine Oksen Lisovyi, an important goal of the reform of specialized secondary education is to change the culture of interaction in the educational environment so that free-thinking people can grow there, able to offer new solutions to local and global challenges.
«Changing culture in the educational environment is a national security task. If we win the war, we can lose the peace if we do not radically change the educational environment. If Ukraine is not ready for life in a free and democratic world», – the Minister mentioned.
The special guest of the forum was Andreas Schleicher, founder of the international Pisa study and Director for Education and Skills of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). In his opinion, the school should not just help students to express themselves, but become a bridge between the abilities of a particular child and areas where they can be applied. After all, very often after graduation, students still do not know who they want to be and are not sure about choosing a further path. As a result, university students drop out or do not work in their speciality.
During the event, participants had the opportunity to hear about the concept of the reform of specialized education, how specialized training is organized in other countries, what the ways to personalize the educational trajectory of a student, what is career counselling and how to organize it, what are the opportunities for cooperation between schools and universities, etc.
«Currently, the planning horizon for the reform is 10 years, that is, the Strategy covers the period up to 2033. But in the context of a full-scale war, it is difficult to predict what the situation will be in Ukrainian education and the country as a whole in 2027 or 2030. Despite all the challenges, we sincerely believe that it is already necessary to build education of a new quality. And the main thing is to take care of its accessibility for every child in Ukraine», — Valentyna Poltorak, DECIDE Project Manager said.