ON INTERNATIONAL MARKETS

The success of education reform in Ukraine will depend on the ability of our country to compete on the international markets, based not on raw materials, but on the intellect of the nation, President Viktor Yanukovych said, speaking at a meeting of the Governing Council of the Committee on Economic Reforms, according to the Press Office of President Viktor Yanukovych.

“We have started an active reform in the area of preschool education. The law on mandatory pre-school education for children of the age of five was approved. But further work has stopped”, he said, adding that there are still no regulations that would specify the concept and functioning of preschool education.

“The Ministry of Education must clearly explain to all how to apply the provisions of the said Law, and guarantee prevention of any possible overcharges for first-graders' parents”, Yanukovych stressed.

“The second problem”, he said, “is the shortage of preschool facilities. We know that many of them were closed in recent years. The 257 kindergartens that were opened last year is a lot, but not enough”, he said, addressing also Prime Minister Mykola Azarov with the request to take the matter under his supervision. Viktor Yanukovych-expressed his conviction that the start of secondary education reform was also good: the provision of educational districts was approved, which opened the way to optimizing the network.

Certainly, Yanukovych said, it is necessary to optimize the network. But the optimization must be performed not for the sake of itself or cutting budget expenditures, but for improving the quality of education for students, particularly in rural areas. So, before closing a school the authorities must determine where its students will be transferred, how better the new conditions will be for them, and how they will be getting to the new place of study every day.

Provision of school buses, the President said, is a key factor of success of the reform. No school buses mean no educational district, and no optimization of the network. “I draw your attention to the problem of school buses. This a priority issue! I know that you dedicate much attention to it, but that is not enough. Please, consider the opportunities of increasing the procurement of buses for this year. While forming the 2012 budget, please, think how to close the problem of school buses in Ukraine. Two and a half thousand buses is, in my opinion, an optimal and feasible task”, he said, addressing Prime Minister Mykola Azarov.

The President drew special attention to the issue of restoring the system of vocational education. “Now that the economy lacks specialists of working trades, there are all preconditions for solving this problem. Big employers are willing to participate in the training, but the Ministry does not use these opportunities sufficiently”, Yanukovych said.

Another issue that has caused great public response according to Yanukovych was the Law on Higher Education. It was supposed to create the conditions for improving the quality of education and ensure integration into the European higher education and scientific research space.

Instead of expanding the autonomy of universities, he said, the bill prepared by the Ministry continues the practice of virtually absolute control of the officials over high schools. The bill does not provide answers to such key questions as how to tie education and science in the research universities, and education and practice in those applied.

“No new tools were proposed to improve the quality of higher education, incentives to strengthen these relations, or mechanisms of commercializing university science achievements”, Viktor Yanukovych added.

He expressed confidence that it is time to modify the concept of government order in higher education. According to him, it must correspond the mid-term forecast of the labour market. Budgetary funds should be spent on ordering the professions that are needed by the economy and the country.

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