Educational experts directly involved in the launch of the New Ukrainian School have developed a project of the Roadmap for the implementation of the reform in secondary and high schools, and called on the community to submit their suggestions to the document. The discussion will last until 30 November, after that the Roadmap is expected to become a unifying document for coordinating efforts to further transform the school for all those who care.

It was discussed at the press event “New Ukrainian School: What’s next?” today, 26 October 2021, in Kyiv.

“The New Ukrainian School reform is a long-distance run. Its annual implementation has been going on for 12 years. Currently, the first cycle of the reform is being completed in grades 1-4. Next year, the New Ukrainian School will start in the 5th grade, that is, in a secondary school. It is a completely different stage that requires different approaches to implementation. All interested parties must have a common vision of change and overall coordination to make the change successful. The Roadmap is our proposal for a vision that could become a unifying factor for the effective implementation of the NUS, giving guidance to all participants in the process – educators, the public, managers, authorities, and employers. As a result, the entire New Ukrainian School community will be able to act as an ecosystem and create a new quality of education,” –

pointed Liliia Hrynevych, Head of the board of the NGO Re: Osvita, The 10th Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine.

She also added that there is “a threat that the ‘status quo’ of the old educational process, which only involves the transmission of knowledge, but ignores the development of critical thinking, creativity and socio-emotional skills, will remain under the cover of this reform”.

The document consists of three main chapters: “What has been done”, which describes the current situation, “Vision of the end result of the reform” – the goal of the transformation we should strive for, and “What needs to be done and how”, which clearly describes the steps required to achieve the result with a clear timeline.

The Roadmap also identifies the main objectives of the NUS in the upper secondary specialized school in the main areas of reform implementation:

• Competency-based content of education prepares for modern life.
• The teaching profession attracts the best.
• Modern network of schools.
• Inclusivity is implemented in practice.
• The education sector is fully digitalised.
• The quality assessment system enables effective decision-making.

The creation of the Roadmap was initiated by the NGO Re:Osvita with the support of the International Renaissance Foundation.

“There have been many reforms in secondary education in Ukraine, but in fact all of them have existed only superficially. The New Ukrainian School was the first structural reform that actually took place. It includes the legislative basis and practical aspects such as financial matters. And importantly, it also includes the maximum involvement of educational stakeholders in the process of discussing government decisions. Why is it so important to think about what to do next? Because the New Ukrainian School has managed to win the trust of parents, the trust of teachers, and, what is more important, it produces positive results for students. According to a study conducted a year ago in the first cycle of the NUS primary school programme, 80% of parents see positive changes for their children. Obviously, further implementation is worth the effort and needs to be improved,” –

pointed Anna Novosad, member of the board of NGO Re:Osvita, the Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine, 2019-2020

The authors are 13 educational experts who are directly involved in the implementation of changes. For example, Roman Shyian, Deputy Director of the Reform Support Team of the Ministry of Education and Science, was responsible for the educational content section. Also, Vadym Karandii, Head of the Ukrainian Institute for Educational Development, was responsible for the teacher’s professional development section.

“Certainly, the NUS reform in basic and upper secondary school has its challenges and implementation should be slightly different than in primary school. Students should get used to making choices, starting from the 7th or 8th grade, to determine which subjects are a priority for them and which are not. It is important to test the credit-module system, when each student will be able to choose exactly what he or she would like to develop. This will reduce the number of different subjects per student and allow for an in-depth study of the chosen disciplines. Implementation of such changes should be carefully planned,” –

pointed Roman Shyian.

Olena Linnik, Expert on Quality Assurance of education in the project Support to Ukraine’s Reforms for Governance (SURGe), described the changes in the assessment system in the education content section of the Roadmap. Natalia Sofiy, the first deputy director of the Ukrainian Institute for Educational Development, was responsible for the inclusivity area.The transformation of the school network was described by Oleh Fasolya, an education expert who headed the Department of Education in Khmelnytskyi and has extensive experience in this area. Natalia Morze, professor at the Department of Computer Science and Mathematics at Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University, described what the digital transformation of a school should look like, especially in view of the challenges of COVID.

The project of the document was created in expert discussions and is expected to be discussed further. All interested parties can submit their suggestions to the text of the document by 30 November 2021 to the following email address team@reosvita.org.