The 2010 returning to the eleven-year secondary education proved the absence of the state strategy in the development of the secondary schools. Due to the efforts of previous governments the educational system just went closer to the 12-year study: the new state standard of the compulsory secondary education was adopted and approved along with new study plans for all the grades: the new study programs for the subjects from the invariable part of the Basic study plan for the compulsory schools were adopted, and the new textbooks for the primary and secondary schools appeared. The secondary school with 12-years profile studying fitted the recommendations of the UNESCO – and this had to provide the correspondence of Ukrainian secondary schools with world standards.
In spite of this, the returning to 11-year plan led to certain direct losses of several billion hryvnias. As it was stated by the head of the department of science and education in the Verkhovna Rada, the change of already produced textbooks for the 12-year school as worth 1,5 billion hrn. The Cabinet of Ministers didn’t name the reasons of the enormous budget losses and forced to withdraw the 10-year work of the implementation of 12-year schooling. Besides, the procedure of adopting the decision to return to previous model of education was assisted by the tremendous violations of the agenda.
A lot of people have good hopes for the new Law “About the higher education” that should change the old one. The competitive ability of Ukrainian economics and the national security of Ukraine directly depend on this law.
Now two draft laws are upon discussion – one of them, offered by the Ministry of Education and Science received the positive attitude from the ruling majority. Despite the visual experts’ discussion, the independent experts’ community calls this project extremely regressive. The project presupposes the rough system of centered administration. The main legal executive body in education and science (The Ministry) leaves itself the right of broad involvement in the academic life of universities. The declared orientation for the scientific and study way of acting of the universities didn’t get any proper implementation mechanisms in the draft law. The level of the tutoring load for the scientific and pedagogical workers remained practically incompatible with the science. There are no presupposed ways of involving of extra money to make the science development possible.
Almost only successful reform in Ukrainian education is the implementation of EIT in the university admission campaigns – is demolished by new admission mechanism. Entrance exams are back to the universities and it means the return of the bribery during the admission. Numerous student manifestations in the beginning of 2011 in Ukraine proved the problems with this draft law, and the public was worried because the text of the draft was corrected just technically.