Ukraine school system steps from Europe back to Russia

Providing Yanukovych signs off on the changes, the state will scrap the country’s 8-year transition to a 12-year general secondary education system and introduce compulsory preschool education for children over the age of five. Adopted on July 6 by a majority of lawmakers backing Yanukovych, the move was necessary to cut expenses amidst already stretched state finances, according to Education Minister Dmytro Tabachnyk. While it could cut expenses by reducing the years students spend at school, it does so at a high cost for the nation, critics say.

Opposition parties and education experts rushed to condemn the move. They insisted it was immoral to make budget cuts at the expense of education for Ukraine’s future generation.

Critics also raised fears that if implemented, Ukrainian students will now find it harder to study abroad at higher quality educational institutions. The move from an 11 to 12-year system traces its roots to 1999, but shifted into higher gear in 2002. It was motivated initially by the desire to bring Ukraine’s education in line with the Bologna system, a Europe-wide system of education.

The switch back to an 11-year system is “a shift away from the European and international standards of secondary education,” a former government education official said on condition of anonymity. The official feared that current authorities could outcast him for publicly criticizing their switch to the 11-year system.

The transition to a 12-year system has been painful and full of complications. It was intended to make it possible for Ukrainian students to transfer course credits and apply to European or American universities after graduating from high school.

But “we just don’t have the number of qualified education professionals and resources to do this,” Tabachnyk, said explaining why a rollback to an 11-year system was necessary.

A senior official ruled out any possible geopolitical underpinnings for the decision, saying it was not driven by efforts under Yanukovych’s leadership to revive close ties with Russia.

But the controversial changes seem to have split Ukraine’s highest ranking officials. Speaking on condition of anonymity, one presidential official expressed sharp disapproval of the changes.

Meanwhile, Serhiy Lyovochkin, the presidential chief of staff, said he supports the changes. Lyovochkin also downplayed accusations that the changes, which clearly bring Ukraine in line with Russia’s education system, move Ukraine away from EU standards. He suggested the new rules do not contradict the European standards.

But experts say the opposite is true.

“The Return to an 11-year secondary education system moves Ukraine away from the European education system making it even harder in most cases for Ukrainian high school graduates to go study directly at universities in the EU,” said Volodymyr Kovtunets, a coordination of the Ukrainian Standardized External Testing Initiative, which is implemented by the Kyiv office of American Councils, an organization that helps advance education.

Parliament spent only 30 minutes debating the changes, which were co-authored by communist lawmaker Kateryna Samoilyk.

After the vote, Tabachnyk, the education minister widely regarded to be Ukraine-phobic and pro-Russian in his views, told journalists that failure by parliament to adopt the changes would have resulted in a fiscal catastrophe. He said preserving the current 12-year system would have required the state to provide 17,000 new teaching positions, new school facilities and new school buses.

But the new changes might prevent high school graduates from matriculating to Western universities, experts say. Since Western system is based on the 12 years of secondary education, a Ukrainian would have to go through a freshmen year at a Ukrainian university before being accepted by a Western one.

Lilia Hrynevych, the former head of the Kyiv administration’s education department, said that despite the fact that the 8-year transition to the 12-year system was not managed properly, there is no reason to abandon it altogether. “The authorities could have acknowledged that the country is not yet prepared to complete the process and propose an alternative plan,” she said.

“They are instead using the general dissatisfaction with botched reforms to introduce a strategic return to the old system, which is one more sign Ukraine is reorienting itself to Russia’s education framework,” says Hrynevych.

“The current authorities don’t appear to be very interested in education. One reason may be because they think it’s easier to rule an uneducated mob,” Hrynevych added.

Kyiv Post staff writer Yuriy Onyshkiv can be reached at [email protected]. Peter Byrne can be reached at [email protected]