Every civilized country seeks to upgrade its education system to meet the challenges of the time. Ukraine is no exception. Even though not everything works out the best way, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine (MON) comes up with new changes almost every week, for example, with regard to state-subsidized student body.
On June 5 the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine adopted a resolution on government quotas for research, teaching, and labor personnel, as well as refresher and training courses in 2009. Compared to last year, this year the number of graduates is down by 15,000 for secondary schools and 37,000, for high schools. The number of applications for entrance tests fell by 50,700. Hence, the government cut the number of undergraduates who will receive its financial support.
The Ministry of Education and Science reduced its quotas by 12.5 to 0.8 percent for all levels of university graduates. At the same time, the government Minister of Education and Science Ivan Vakarchuk’s suggestion to maintain the existing quotas for a number of majors, mainly in the field of tourism, hotel and restaurant business, arts, document research and processing, and public relations.
The revision of the quotas for the state-subsidized students is just one part of the reforms that must be carried out in Ukraine’s college and university system. The Day invited its experts to comment on the following questions: (1) introduction of an external testing system in Ukraine and its accomplishments and problems; (2) integration of higher education and research as a factor that improves the quality of education; (3) optimization of the Ukrainian college network.
STUDYING JUT JF DOORS
Ihor PASICHNYK, Ph.D. (Psychology), rector, Ostroh Academy National University:
“The ministry’s idea concerning external independent testing is fairly progressive. I mentioned this when this system was launched last year. The only aspect I keep emphasizing is the need to substantially analyze these innovative changes and make conclusions. These conclusions are there for everyone to see. We see that high school graduates choose three or four subjects they need in order to get enrolled in college and concentrate on them. They simply ignore other subjects. As a result, there is a lack of overall academic progress because the students are not motivated to study all subjects.
“It is no secret that grades are this very motivation in school. Without it there is no desire to master a given subject. This problem could be solved by introducing a combined scoring system with the test grades coupled with the students’ GPA from their school graduation certificates. I realize that this poses a threat of corruption in schools, yet if we concern ourselves only with corruption, we can lose the main thing, namely the quality and amount of knowledge acquired by children at school.
“Furthermore, the emphasis on research in universities is extremely topical now. Universities in Western Europe are research centers in the first place.
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