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Available education: the Open Policy Foundation expands its cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Science and UNICEF

March 26, 2018, 9 p.m.


How to increase access to quality education for children and youth affected by the conflict and schoolchildren who live in remote and rural areas? How to improve the quality of distance learning for them?

These and other important issues became the main focus of the meeting of the Head of the Open Policy Foundation Iryna ZHDANOVA with the Deputy Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine Roman HREBA, the Head of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Ukraine Giovanna BARBERIS, and the representatives of the UNICEF Education Cluster that took place in early March this year.

The main result of the discussion was that all the areas, for which the Open Policy Foundation advocates since 2016, should be included in the new UNICEF programming cycle in Ukraine for 2018-2022.

The head of the Open Policy Foundation Iryna Zhdanova announced a number of proposals for introducing distance learning techniques, expanding the “Hotline” work, conducting an information campaign, and improving the institutional capacity of local communities in Luhanska and Donetska oblasts, youth centers, and vocational schools.

"Education is an instrument for peace-building and the reintegration of the occupied territories. According to the latest Law “On the peculiarities of State policy on ensuring Ukraine's State sovereignty over temporarily occupied territories in Donetsk and Luhansk regions,” only two documents issued in the Non-government controlled areas are recognized in Ukraine: birth certificate and death certificate. Therefore, the recognized educational documents can only be obtained in two ways: by studying on the distance/external basis or passing the exams under the simplified procedure through the “Donbas-Ukraine” and “Crimea-Ukraine” Educational Centers,” - emphasized Iryna ZHDANOVA.

On the air of the Radio “Crimea.Realities,” General Director of the NGO “Open Policy Foundation” Iryna Zhdanova told about how the Crimeans can obtain higher education in mainland Ukraine.

The head of the Foundation added that today distance learning becomes more in demand not only among the residents of the Non-government controlled areas (NGCA) but also the residents of remote and rural areas of Ukraine and children who need inclusion. Large risks include meteorological conditions and the closure of schools in villages under decentralization.

Therefore, it is necessary to specify the distance learning in the UNICEF programming cycle for 2018-2022.

"Distance learning is an instrument for ensuring access to quality education not only for children/youth affected by the conflict but also for children/youth with special needs (inclusive education) from small villages and remote areas. The school network is optimized through decentralization, so it is necessary to develop a qualitative video content throughout the whole New Ukrainian School program and institutional support for schools that provide distance learning services for each child in local communities of different regions of Ukraine. This is consistent with the New Ukrainian School concept. We also propose to note this suggestion in the programming cycle. We can start by creating a model of a school with quality distance learning," - said Iryna ZHDANOVA.

She also added that there should be several online platforms for distance learning in Ukraine since a platform that can operate on the site of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine (MoES) with the extension gov.ua is blocked in the NGCA. There are such open educational platforms as Prometheus and Osvitoria in Ukraine. But these resources require the registration. An important factor is that such platforms should not require the registration. Therefore, the platform “Available education” should be upgraded and become a resource for a broader target audience.

In addition, the parties discussed the need to take into account the development of vocational education in the new cycle of cooperation with UNICEF. Therefore, the next equally important proposition concerns the institutional support of the vocational schools, as well as local communities and youth centers.

"Today, local communities do not have the project teams and a modern innovative case of project management. This is especially felt at the level of the vocational schools, where the Soviet principles of management, instead of modern methods, which are necessary for the labor market, have survived. Therefore, the Open Policy Foundation proposes to jointly focus on the activities of the vocational schools, which should give young people the skills necessary to self-actualization in the modern labor market and create the project teams. Especially in local communities in the east of Ukraine", - emphasized Iryna ZHDANOVA.

The representatives of UNICEF and the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine also appreciated the results of the implementation of the “Available Education” program of the Open Policy Foundation, aimed at expanding access to quality education for children and youth affected by the conflict.

"Today, we are jointly implementing the “Available Education” program, which helps children from Crimea and Donbas to prepare for the Independent external evaluation and the State final examination in Ukrainian language and history of Ukraine on the distance basis. Also, this resource contains links to mobile apps and contacts of Consulting Centers. Moreover, we want to expand this program and orient it to children from small villages and remote areas of all Ukraine. This will help improve the quality of education," - said Roman HREBA.

This program has been implemented since 2016 and has positive results. Within the framework of this program, the “Hotline” operates in Kyiv and from May 2017 also in Kramatorsk, Sievierodonetsk, and Kherson. The “Available Education” website was created where the video lessons for preparing for the Independent external evaluation and the State final examination in Ukrainian language, literature, and history of Ukraine, and STREAM-course videos are available in open access. They are free and require no registration. Also, the Foundation, in conjunction with the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, the Ministry of Information Policy of Ukraine, the Ministry of Temporarily Occupied Territories and Internally Displaced Persons of Ukraine, Donetsk, Luhansk, and Kherson Regional State Administration, and Ukrainian Railways “Ukrzaliznytsya” conducts the large information campaign.

As the part of the implementation of projects supported by UNICEF, step-by-step instructions, video lessons, and social advertising, which was broadcasted on radio and television (video and audio clips on equal access to education for children, university entrants, and students from the NGCA of eastern Ukraine and Crimea), were developed.

Read how the Crimeans can enter Ukrainian higher educational institutions and be admitted to a state-funded place in 2018 on the website “Crimea.Realities” in the article “Free education on the mainland”

In total, in 2017, more than 40 thousand informational materials were distributed at the entry-exit checkpoints, Educational Centers, vocational schools, schools, in social services, among local authorities, at stations, on buses, trains of 16 directions, and 118 carriages of Intercity in Donetska, Luhanska, and Khersonska oblasts. Also, last year, the Open Policy Foundation, together with the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, developed methodological manuals for the “Hotline” consultants on education. The manual can be viewed and downloaded at the link

“The result of the program implementation – In 2017, 1,5 times more entrants entered higher and vocational educational institutions through the Educational Centers in comparison with 2016 (in 2017 – 1 568 people, in 2016 – 1 008 people). In 2016-2017, about 8 thousand people applied for consultations to the Educational Centers. At the same time, the number of students, who study at schools remotely, increases as well. Thus, in Luhanska oblast, the number of such children increased 7 times from the beginning of the conflict. Over the last academic year, this number increased almost 1.5 times. The number of students who are attached to the external form and study distance not only in the final grades (9, 11 classes) but also at the elementary school, is growing. There is a similar dynamics in Donetska oblast. According to the Department of Education and Science of the Donetsk Regional State Administration, every year the number of schoolchildren, who study on distance and external basis at schools in the GCA, increases by one third,” - emphasized Iryna ZHDANOVA.

In total, in 2017, the “Hotline” received three times more calls from Crimea and eastern Ukraine (in 2016 - almost 6,000 calls, more than 1,000 of them were from eastern Ukraine and Crimea, in 2017 - 8 000 / 2 970 in accordance).

Therefore, the head of the Open Policy Foundation noted that there is a need to expand the “Hotline” work and create a Legal Counseling Center and start an information campaign right now to get ready for the admission campaign. The residents of the east of Ukraine and Crimea can apply for the “Hotline” of the Open Policy Foundation for the explanations on education during the whole year:


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