Ukrainian education as seen by a German researcher
The Ukrainian Press Academy in Kyiv held a seminar recently, dealing with two problems of the national educational system called The Impact of the History of Ukrainian Education on the Modern Schooling Process in Ukraine as well as The Intercultural Aspects of German-Ukrainian Relations: Translation and Understanding. The seminar was initiated by the Ukrainian branch of Munich’s Institute of Eastern Europe. Peter Hilkes, one of the seminar organizers, kindly shared with The Day certain aspects of the Munich institute’s research project and some of the findings relating to the Ukrainian educational process.
In a letter to the Editors, Mr. Hilkes writes that after 1991 German researchers began to “pay attention to Ukrainian problems gradually,” particularly studying the teaching process and comparing it to the general European picture. This is explained primarily by the fact that very few German scholars know Ukrainian (“can read Ukrainian texts,” as Mr. Hilkes put it in his letter). Gradually, the interest in Ukrainian educational problems is increasing and so does the number of publications devoted to it.
To study the situation at greater length, German scholars have since 1997 been elaborating a system known as the Working Forum of Ukraine, uniting German research centers and individuals working on Ukraine. The forumNET.Ukraine site has been prepared, supported by the German-Ukrainian Forum and financially assisted by Daimler-Chrysler. The new Internet project will be available at the start of 2002. This site is meant to help further study Ukrainian problems and uphold concerted action and data exchanges.
In 2001, Mr. Hilkes launched a project called Educational Reform, Level of Instruction and Labor Market in Ukraine at the Institute of Eastern Europe, within the context of the official Ukrainian educational concept. The project has some difficult aspects, he notes, especially discrepancies between official sources (reports, statistics, school, and college student grading) and realities. Thus all inferences and generalizations have to be made with the utmost caution.
The German expert is convinced that the Ukrainization process in the educational domain must become one of the most influential factors of state building and maintaining the national identity of the Ukrainian people. Mr. Hilkes is noticeably concerned about the slow rate of educational reform in this country. In his “Forming the Nation and Ukrainization” the author points out that the current educational system retains a number of traditional Soviet traits, including Russian as the predominant language of instruction at the college and university level.
Since 1991 Ukraine has officially waged a Ukrainization policy, with Ukrainian as the language of instruction at all levels being its major lever. Hilkes believes that this policy is not consistent. For example, the planned incentive (15% pay rise) for teachers of Ukrainian and other teachers using Ukrainian was never financed (while the Soviets successfully used it in secondary and higher schools — Author).
The following are several considerations by the German specialist on Ukraine Peter Hilkes, concerning the modern status of education in Ukraine, with its outwardly incompatible trends (trying to follow the Western standard and retaining a number of Soviet teaching methods). Among the overall negative trends he singles out the “post-Soviet” lack of routine activity in the educational reform and another Soviet leftover, corruption.
After winning independence, Ukraine has been trying to rid itself of the Soviet educational heritage, yet very many of the old educational structures, teaching methods, and concepts have turned out remarkably tenacious of life. This is especially true of the provinces and countryside where new textbooks, teaching aids, and fiction literature are practically unavailable for want of funds. Thus they use Soviet materials. Add here the teachers’, parents’, and students’ traditional Soviet reliance on textbooks and textbooks only. This largely explains why the so-called vacuum of ideas in Ukraine is being filled so slowly.
Mr. Hilkes holds that the key words of any modern educational system must be deideologization, democratization, regionalization, and privatization. There has been little headway on any of these fronts in Ukraine so far. Moreover, opposite trends are taking shape, including a new kind of postcollectivism, actually a vestige of Soviet ways in the guise of the humanities, something national, or reform. There is also, a dramatic shortage of information. After the Soviet Union collapsed, with its chronic shortage of truthful information, Ukraine began to quickly develop its own variety of Soviet opacity. The result is a greatly variegated (often quite illogical) educational landscape, with substantial differences between the province and the capital, between the city and the countryside, and often even between schools a short walk from each other.
Starting in 1991, numerous statutory acts relating to the educational sphere have been issued. On the one hand, they provide for an educational reorientation, paving the way for new tasks. Unfortunately, a considerable number of these documents turned out to be too detailed, perhaps meant to retain the principle of rigid centralization in the management of education. Some of them often contradicted each other, obstructing an analysis of their impact on secondary and higher educational life. Meanwhile, laws, edicts, decrees, and directives can regulate far from all aspects of education. Thus, nothing has been done about the adjustment of Ukrainian high school and university diplomas to their Western counterparts, although the need is clearly apparent.
Mr. Hilkes is convinced that the Western orientation of the Ukrainian educational system is obstructed by:
— lack of financing in carrying out a truly radical educational reform;
— presence of old Soviet cadres holding numerous posts at schools, colleges, universities, and executive authorities having jurisdiction over this system;
— executive personnel and often teachers and scholars showing little interest in reforming the educational system;
— broadening gap between the teaching standards in the capital and the provinces, in urban and rural areas, even in separate administrative regions and districts; this calls for differentiated factors of reform influence that are not always envisaged; and
— bribery, rampant at almost every level, slowing down reform and obstructing any analysis of its effectiveness.
Over the past decade the graduate certification system at the secondary [high school] and post-secondary levels has changed significantly for the worse. This is due primarily to the complex system of financing certain student categories by business structures, and again owing to corruption thriving at practically all institutions of learning. These factors are a serious obstacle to analyzing Ukraine’s educational standard and checking just how a diploma tallies with the bearer’s knowledge. This is especially true of college/university graduates, where knowledge received “under contract” or otherwise is often certified using different criteria. No noticeable steps have been taken to correct the situation.
Objective assessment methods (like testing) are also a problem for the High Certification Commission and State Accreditation Commission. Mr. Hilkes believes that the HCC has shown a much better performance under the chairmanship of Viktor Skopenko who toughened requirements for applicants and in some cases revoked academic degrees, with due announcements in the press. As for the SAC, attempts to improve its work came to a standstill in the mid- 1990s, along with radical educational reform projects. However, there are obvious intentions to ease the bureaucratic burden and simplify accreditation procedures. In 1998, a conference of rectors of East European institutions of higher education for the first time signed an agreement on the mutual recognition of college/university diplomas issued in Eastern Europe. Yet no signs of progress can be seen in the Ukrainian institutions, because the gap between what happens in reality and what is on paper is too wide; likewise, the results produced by various Ukrainian institutions of higher learning are too different.
Mr. Hilkes writes that there was a firm link between the Soviet educational system and labor market. Ten years later this link is almost nonexistent Moreover, despite the acute problem of unemployment, especially with regard to the younger generation, the subject of professionally oriented education is very unpopular, even marginal; the government and the Ministry of Education show very little interest. Higher education and vocational school graduates have to look for jobs, expecting no assistance from the authorities (let alone the kind of supposed training these young people receive at such vocational schools). Mr. Hilkes was shocked to learn that vocational schools teach 7,000 different specialties. This would be completely unthinkable in Europe.
Mr. Hilkes is very impressed by George Soros’ International Renaissance Foundation’s endeavors in Ukraine, particularly in the sphere of education. The IRF operates a developed network of educational establishments all over Ukraine, supporting numerous college and university modernization projects, especially in the provinces. Their key objective is stepping up the democratic process in the educational realm. Incidentally, the foundation sponsored Ukraine’s first debate on the legislation governing higher education. It never hesitates to bring matters to high officials, including the president, drawing their attention to the lack of political will in educational reform. Last but not least, it is working on educational assessment projects.
An outside observer’s view is always very useful, although far from all findings by the German experts agree with our domestic assessments and approaches. Even though most of Mr. Hilkes’ inferences are based on studies of Ukrainian sources. Apparently, the educational system of this big country (big but still not great) is too heavy and clumsy a wagon to get moving. One can hardly expect it to be dragged off the well-trodden path and pushed onto a new one quickly. We have been trying for the past decade.
