After a two-year lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the desire to resume full-time education was understandable, says Ukrainian journalist Halyna Pastushuk.
However, due to the war unleashed by Russia against Ukraine, which continues to this day, such plans by the education ministry seemed very optimistic.
On the other hand, it is now possible to start a discussion on what education will be like when Ukraine wins the war with Russia.
What changes and innovations should educational institutions prepare for and how can this industry change in Ukraine?
Halyna Pastushuk reports.
Click on the audio player above to listen:
The war changed the plans of the vast majority of Ukrainian schoolchildren, students and education employees. Everyone had to escape from physical danger, and after that to recover and try to connect new realities with the old life. Many of the usual things stopped working. Some teachers could not or did not want to resume the distance learning process because they changed their place of residence. 26,000 teachers left abroad, some of them were unable to conduct classes with students online and found work in their new country of residence.
A significant number of schoolchildren began to attend educational institutions in European countries and switched to adapting to life there. 670,000 students left Ukraine because of the war. And many of them have changed their priorities. Now it is not clear to students abroad why they should study the rules of declension of nouns in the Ukrainian language, if everyone around them speaks Polish, German, Spanish or French.
Although the bombs of the aggressor country fell only on the buildings of schools and universities, they also destroyed the education system itself. Although it is unfortunate to be aware of such destruction, one can also find a positive side of this situation - the Ukrainian education system will have to be rebuilt, reformed and a large number of innovations will be willy-nilly introduced. So, after the war, it should grow somehow.
One of the negative characteristics of the Ukrainian education before the war was something one can refer to as its irrelevance. Parents and students have long complained that the knowledge acquired at school cannot be applied in practice. At the same time, the school ignores important practical skills for survival in the modern world. For example, instead of financial literacy lessons, children are taught how to find indefinite integrals. The result is that adults have no understanding of a financial safety cushion and the need to create passive income, leaving them financially vulnerable to life's challenges. And the ability to find the indefinite integral does not help them pass these challenges with dignity.
After the end of the war, the situation may change. First, traces of the Russian and Soviet heritage will finally disappear from school textbooks. Secondly, the school program will become even more adapted to modern realities.
Ever since the time of the Union, it was the state that decided what to finance in universities. Autonomy will allow higher educational institutions to independently make decisions on reforming the quality of education, research, and teaching. In addition, the empowerment of universities will allow them to capitalize on their academic achievements.
Thus, higher education will get a new life in Ukraine and will have a chance to keep a large number of young people in the country.
War hostilities became another impetus for changing the principles of the teaching process. Teachers once again realized that now their strength is not in the ability to tell what students can listen to on YouTube or read on the Internet without them. Now their strength lies in their ability to support and ignite a thirst for knowledge, motivate, help find their talent, and become a support. These skills proved indispensable for children during the war and helped them to pull themselves together and regain what seemed to be lost forever. These skills are extremely important in the future as well.
The modern accelerated world provides a unique opportunity to instantly exchange information and learn the truth about the world. The myth that Ukraine is a third world country with a lot of flaws was dispelled literally in the first weeks of forced migration. Ukrainians finally appreciated the great number of advantages that life in our country gave.
This realization will help many to get rid of the inferiority complex, take an adult position and join the solution of educational problems at the global level. For example, Elon Musk has been concerned for many years that artificial intelligence may soon become a threat to humanity, and education today should produce such specialists who would be able to counteract such threats.
Currently in the US, programs such as the Intelligent Tutoring System can respond to a student's cognitive needs, provide appropriate feedback, and personalize content based on student interests. Having victoriously ended the war, Ukraine can join the great players of this world in order to solve the global problems of humanity together with them. Having won, we will finally understand that we are strong, resourceful, courageous, which means that we can become full-fledged partners of the strong countries of the world, we will be able not to wait for help, but to take responsibility and improve the world on our own.
Are we ready for this? If each of us realizes our responsibility already today, then we will be ready for a new era in Ukrainian education and in the life of the country as a whole.