Education in Ukraine has a complex structure of the European type, it includes pre-school education, comprehensive secondary education, extra-school education, vocational technical education, higher education, graduate, postgraduate and doctoral education, self-education. Besides there are the following educational levels: primary general education, basic general secondary education, full general secondary education, vocational education, basic higher education, full higher education; educational qualification levels have the following gradation: qualified worker, junior specialist, bachelor, specialist, master. Adoption of such a ramified scheme is of a principal importance since it guarantees to a person a free choice and gives him/her a possibility to obtain education according to his/her mental and professional abilities. In pursuance of the Low of Ukraine “On education” citizens of Ukraine have the right to get education of different forms: daytime, evening, extra-mural and distant. Distant learning is successfully developing and improving alongside with the development of information technologies.(Schema of the system education of Ukraine)
Today Ukraine possesses function 17,2 thousand pre-school institutions with 1,055 thousand children, or about 39% of the total number of pre-school children. The children with mental and those having chronic diseases of internal organs are being taught at the institutions of a compensatory type – 1,3 thousand special institutions, 507 sanatorium type institutions.
Special kindergartens with a priority development of the certain type of activity implementing author’s programs, experience of the outstanding teachers of the past and present are being actively organized; they offer additional educational services. There are more than 1,7 thousand of such institutions.
The national system of secondary education of Ukraine embraces 21,6 thousand secondary educational institutions with 14,9 thousand ones situated in the countryside.
273 gymnasiums, 232 lyceums, 25 colleges have been established for gifted children, and the number of such educational institutions increases annually.
The boarding schools experience proved their necessity as establishments for social and working rehabilitation. If the social – pedagogical work with children with mental and physical defects, children-invalids is organized properly, they develop successfully.
According to the changes of the demographic situation and social – economic conditions the network of boarding schools is being constantly unproved. At the beginning of a new academic year 401 special boarding schools for children with mental and physical defects and social rehabilitation secondary schools and 221 private schools functioned in Ukraine.
Today, taking into account the international experience the concept of the 12-year term of study in the general secondary school and the 12-point scale marking system for pupils’ knowledge assessment is adopted and is being implemented in Ukraine. All the marks according to this 12-point scale will be entered into the relevant general certificate of education. Though the 12-point scale system is not the aim hi itself. It can become effective if it is accompanied by the list of compulsory school subjects’, state attestation and other above-mentioned measures.
The transition of the Ukrainian school onto the 12-year term of study prompts revising the contents of primary education. In regard to primary school children’s abilities primary school is called upon to provide raising children as citizens of Ukraine, ensuring their intellectual, social and physical development and their further development as personalities. The content of education is based on the human values, on the principles of scientific and cultural development, humanism, democracy, mutual respect among different ethnic groups. It aims at the protection of interests of an individual, family, society and the State of Ukraine.
According to the International program on education in human rights, the UN “Convention on Children’s Rights”, the Constitution of Ukraine, the Law of Ukraine on “On Out-of-School Education” which defines the State policy in the sphere of extra-school education, its legal, social-economic, organizational, teaching and educational principles is adopted in Ukraine. The main objectives of extra-school education are:
- free development of a personality and formatting of his/her social experience and civil spirit;
- creation the conditions for creative, intellectual, spiritual and physical development of a child;
- search, development and support of capable and gifted children and young people.
Daring the dynamic social development and market transformations vocational education gets a very great importance.
Vocational educational system performs a very important function in social protection of the youth. Educational institutions provide instruction and financial assistance to 81 thousand orphans 50 thousand children with one parent and 178 thousand children from disadvantaged and problem families (45% of the total number of students).
In recent 5 years the number of vocational schools of a new type has doubled. Nowadays there are 110 higher vocational schools and centres of vocational training, 14 vocational-and-art schools, 4 agrarian firm-colleges.
The structure of higher education in Ukraine is build up in accordance with the structure of education of the world’s higher developed countries which is defined by UNESCO, UN and other international organizations.
The higher education system comprises state-owned as well as private higher educational institutions. The network includes 979 higher educational institutions of I-IV accreditation levels (vocational and technical schools, colleges, institutions, academies, universities), among which 664 higher educational institutions of I-II levels of accreditation including 593 state-owned ones and other 71 with other forms of ownership training 528 thousand students.
The higher educational network of III-IV accreditation levels numbers 315 establishments including 223 state-owned ones.
For the first time hi 2000 in pursuance of the Decrees of the President of Ukraine and Resolutions of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine the system of crediting students’ tuition was introduced. In the years to follow the State Budget provides 5 mln. hryvnyas for this purposes.
Decrees of the President of Ukraine “On State Assistance for Training Personnel for Rural Regions” etc. play an important social role in establishing legal framework for social protection of the young people.
Recently, Ukraine has faced a considerable increase in the number of children under 18 who study at technical and vocational schools, colleges and have limited possibilities for then- development; they need a special social care and governmental support for receiving professional education. Primarily it concerns all children – invalids, children with physical defects, ill children and those who are victims of the nuclear disaster at the Chernobyl NPP. Such children study at technical boarding schools for the disabled. The International Human Development University has been recently founded in Ukraine. The University is known for the application of new education technologies, distant learning hi particular, it allows everyone to obtain a full-scale education of the I-IV levels of accreditation in 27 specialties depending on the state of health and residence of a student. The university branches are scattered all over Ukraine. Comprehensive education-scientific-rehabilitation complexes (from kindergartens to master courses) have been established. Besides technical schools and colleges of Ukraine provide special training courses for the disabled allowing them to obtain the qualification of a junior specialists.
A mportant task of the system of education of Ukraine is the realization of the concept of lifetime learning. The labour market changes quickly, that dictates the necessity to elaborate short-term teaching program for retraining qualification improvement of personnel. The system of post – graduate education must perform this important function.
Today positive changes are taking place in the formation of a complex system of post-graduate education as a constituent of national education. There function over 500 state-owned and non-governmental educational establishments and their subdivisions, with about 200 higher educational establishments of post-graduate education directly subordinated to the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine. At the same time 23 ministries and administrations have their own network of educational institutions, the most important of them being agrarian, industrial and transport institutes. Annually the post-graduate system of education trams 300 thousand specialists of whom 30 thousand get a higher education of different educational and qualification level in 58 specialties.
