The Ministry of Education will approve guidelines for local authorities to help assess the state of the vocational education network and direct resources to promising institutions.
This was announced by Deputy Minister of Education Ihor Harbaruk.
According to him, there are currently more than 700 vocational education institutions in Ukraine, and some of them require significant funds to maintain.
«There are currently 732 vocational education and training institutions in Ukraine, and unfortunately, there are some that are understaffed. This is primarily due to the unfavourable demographic situation that has been observed in recent years. As a result, significant funds are spent on the maintenance of such institutions. The recommendations of the Ministry of Education and Science will help local authorities to concentrate resources on priority areas and increase investment in the material and technical base of vocational schools that need it,» said the Deputy Minister of Education.
The criteria that local authorities should take into account when working with the network include the demography of the region, economic and social development, the existing educational network, etc.
The Ministry of Education notes that by assessing these indicators, local managers will be able to make decisions on the reorganisation of vocational schools, their establishment or merger.
«The success of a network of vocational education institutions depends on the interest and active actions of managers. Currently, they do not have specific tools to help them carry out this process properly, so they often rely on their own intuition. This should not be the case. That is why we will develop optimal criteria that will become an objective guide for them in making decisions,» added Igor Garbaruk.
Representatives of local education authorities, employers' organisations, and Estonian education experts were involved in the development of the document.
