Liliya Hrynevych: teachers themselves must accompany reforms and only they can implement new educational content in practice

During a meeting with educationalists in Sumy on 19 May 2016, Liliya Hrynevych, Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine, said that one of the important issues for the education system now is the social status and level of training of teaching staff, across the board, starting with preschool education. A perpetual problem is finding teachers for preschools given that their job grade is in an unreasonably low wage category. "When compared to universities, the positions of "teacher of the highest category" and principals, are paid at the eleventh salary grade, and assistant lecturer at a university is paid at the fifteenth salary grade”, said the Minister. Liliya Hrynevych stressed the need to have from next year a process in place to move schoolteachers up the salary grades, since such a gap in their wages is not justified.

The question of teacher training is also foreseen in the Education Bill, which is now being discussed in Parliament. "We want to create an opportunity and give optional choices for teachers to compile their training in modules, to expand their opportunities in this direction", said Liliya Hrynevych.

The Minister stated that given the development of information technology, where any information can now be obtained, the challenge is critical thinking, with the ability to sort and select what is important. Therefore it is important to form basic competencies, basic skills necessary for people’s lives. Besides traditional competencies, such as, for example, native and foreign languages, and mathematical literacy, there needs to be more focus on entrepreneurship, and financial literacy, civic and cultural competencies, teamwork, and critical thinking. The education system should start working to children's needs, and the main slogan in the educational sector of advanced countries is now "Education for life." In this context, teachers must change their roles in relation to pupils in terms of partnership and supportiveness.

As Liliya Hrynevych said, to implement these competencies and to update the content of education, the Ministry requires the teachers themselves, since the teacher actually guides reforms.