On 12 May, representatives of the educational sector learned about the best practices in the development of the educational network in municipalities of the Khmelnytskyi Oblast. They made this educational visit as part of the U-LEAD’s Support Programme “Organisation of Lyceum Activities in the Municipality”.
“For three days, the visitors studied the experiences of municipalities of the Khmelnytskyi Oblast in creating efficient lyceums and capable educational networks, established contacts and shared best practices,” said Tetiana Bordiuh, Head of the Regional Office of U-LEAD with Europe in the Zaporizhzhia Oblast and Chair of the Working Group on Education.
The visitors had a chance to see the practical implementation of the things they had heard about in the sessions of the Support Programme. In particular, they observed the best practices for forming a network of lyceums in municipalities of various types and capabilities.
On the first day, they visited the urban municipality of Krasylivka. The visit began with a meeting with the mayor of the city, Nila Ostrovska, and the head of the Department of Education, Youth and Sports, Olena Zaika. The head of the City Council shared her experience of forming a capable educational network and creating an efficient lyceum there.
According to the head of the Education Department, they started working on the education network back in 2017. Now that they need to plan the network of lyceums in accordance with the latest changes in the legislation, certain adjustments had to be made.
“We made a good estimation of the population profile for the next 5 years and realised that to ensure proper specialised secondary education, we need one lyceum, but a high-quality one,” said Ms Zaika.
Municipal officials shared their experience of negotiating with stakeholders. This gave the participants practical knowledge on how to convince local council members, how to negotiate with students and their parents, how to reach educators and account for their interests and feedback.
Next, the visitors had a closer look at the functioning of a local inclusive resource centre as well as a sports and rehabilitation centre. After that, they visited the newly opened Chill Out Youth Centre that, with the help of international partners, managed to bring to life the creative ideas of young people on how to organise their leisure.
In the municipality of Stara Ushytsia, village head Anatolii Tymchuk explained the process of optimising the educational network and how the municipality arranged transportation of children and teachers to educational institutions. The municipality faced a situation where they had not only to lower the degree of the educational institution, but to close it down completely:
“If we wish to move forward and provide our children with quality education in good conditions, we are forced to take these unpopular steps.”
According to him, when winding up educational institutions, it is necessary to decide how to give access to education to all those seeking it and to employ teachers. Since the municipality consists of a settlement and 13 small villages, they had to start classes in schools at different hours.
“By optimising the educational network, we were able to reduce expenses for the maintenance of institutions, which allowed us to attract more funds to those educational institutions where we drive students to and, therefore, to improve their learning environment,” said the head of the municipality.
The participants visited the Stara Ushytsia Lyceum, where they toured classrooms, offices, a cafeteria, an assembly hall, a sports hall, an ante-room and a security classroom and learned about various projects implemented by the student and teacher groups of the lyceum.
The participants of the educational visit also saw how a shut-down school in the village of Horaivka was transformed into a residence, an art space — Bakota Hub — and a hostel, as a space to grow together and effectively implement educational projects. Valeriia Strusevych, Head of the Youth Council, held a workshop on creating eco-friendly tote bags. The event ended at the Bakota Observation Deck with a tour by Taras Horbniak of Podilsky Tovtry, a research and production enterprise.
Project management has become a necessary component of the functioning of educational institutions. The participants of the educational visit learned how lyceum students and teachers get engaged in project activities in the Shepetivka municipality.
“The secondary education institutions of this municipality are currently working on 57 projects. For instance, in Educational Complex No. 1, which will be reorganised into a lyceum next year, the participants saw cases of projects implemented with the active participation of high school students. Among them is the Success Vector, which helps students develop their skills and reach their potential later in life. The institution also approved its development strategy,” said Dmytro Prokopets, Advisor on Municipal Finance and Management at the Regional Office of U-LEAD in the Chernivtsi Oblast, who accompanied the delegation of educators.
The premises of the reorganised educational institution in the Shepetivka municipality were turned into a Centre for Environmental Creativity of Schoolchildren. Here students can study school forestry, learn how to deal with plants and animals and care about nature and the environment as part of their extracurricular activities.
“I sincerely appreciate the time, knowledge and experience generously shared by the hospitable municipalities of the Khmelnytskyi Oblast: Krasylivka, Shepetivka and Stara Ushytsia. In addition to a chance for me to observe the experience of reforming educational institutions, the trip was also a true celebration of cooperation, exchange of ideas and inspiration. I am particularly grateful to organisers from U-LEAD for flawless preparation and conducting of online and offline training,” Oksana Havrilova, a representative of the Myropil municipality, Zhytomyr Oblast, wrote on her page.
Throughout the visit, the participants were accompanied by the team of the Regional Office of U-LEAD in the Khmelnytskyi Oblast.
On May 30, the final info session was held as part of the U-LEAD’s Support Programme “Organisation of Lyceum Activities in the Municipality” for the participants to share their feedback and plans for further steps and practical implementation of the acquired knowledge.