Rating of Ukrainian education events of 2023 is named

Ukraine'seducation has demonstrated that it can develop, even in such a difficult situation as war. The most important events in education were summarised by the Association for Innovative and Digital Education.

Appointment of the Year

on March 21, Oksen Lisovy, who has made a professional path from a teacher to the Director of the National Centre "Small Academy of Sciences of Ukraine", was appointed Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine. He formulated his goal as Minister as follows: "In difficult times for the country, we will continue to act for the sake of victory and results, which will be based on the main values. Above all, we need to focus on the formation and development of children and youth through the creation of conditions for their critical thinking and tools for self-realisation in society."

Lesson of the Year

Two lessons were included in this nomination at once:

on 15 March 2023, the All-Ukrainian lesson on career guidance with the participation of leading Ukrainian employers took place live on the unified TV marathon. This lesson was seen live by schoolchildren from all regions of Ukraine.

on September 1, an All-Ukrainian lesson on mental health was held for all students of general secondary education institutions within the framework of the All-Ukrainian mental health programme "Are You Alright?" initiated by the First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska.

Challenge of the Year

on 5 December, the results of PISA-2022 - an international education quality survey aimed at assessing the ability of 15-year-olds to apply knowledge and skills in reading, mathematics and science in real-life contexts - were released. This is the second time Ukraine has participated in this study.

Overall, the results were lower than those of the last cycle, which was expected. This was probably influenced by a combination of factors related to the pandemic and full-scale invasion.

Result of the year

During 2023, Ukrainian Education Hubs (Digital Learning Centres - DLCs) were actively opened to support women and children who are now forced to stay abroad due to the full-scale war. More than 300,000 people have already benefited from the services of the Hubs.

Now the Network of Ukrainian Education Hubs operates in 10 EU countries, and on 8 December a Hub was opened in the UK.

Next year it is planned to open Ukrainian Educational Hubs in the USA, Japan, Italy and Australia.

Title of the Year

Ukrainian teacher Artur Proydakov was included in the top ten best teachers of the world Global Teacher Prize 2023. Through his work in different schools and social activities he tries to show that the work of a modern teacher is not only about giving lessons in the classroom. According to him, a teacher's responsibility is the ability to set a good example and adhere to a system of values.

Project of the Year

During the COVID-19 pandemic and the full-scale war unleashed by the Russian Federation in Ukraine, a large number of students were deprived of the opportunity to fully participate in the educational process. This caused significant educational losses. The issue of solving this priority problem was raised at the hearings of the VRU Committee on Education, Science and Innovation, and the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine has developed recommendations on the organisation of programmes to compensate for educational losses for education seekers.

To overcome this challenge, in November, an artificial intelligence-based Education Loss Remediation Ecosystem was launched, which allows students to identify which topics from school subjects need catching up. Training is available through interactive case-based lessons.

At the pilot stage, content is available for students in grades 9-11 in core subjects. Over 100,000 students, their parents and teachers have already used the service in two months.

Perspective of the Year

This nomination includes two initiatives at once:

on 1 September, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky presented the innovative educational application "Dream" - a unique digital project that will help unlock a child's potential and talents and which will soon be available.

And in December, Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine - Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov presented the Global Innovation Vision: it defines the key directions of the country's development in domestic and foreign policy contexts. The Global Innovation Vision contains three sections and an action plan: "Innovation Ecosystem", "Supporting the Innovation Ecosystem" and "Development of Priority Industries".

Digitalisation of the Year

In December, the largest annual event in the sphere of IT education in Ukraine - "Synergy. IT Business & IT Education: 10th anniversary edition", which brought together IT business leaders, representatives of corporate, private and public education institutions and the best experts of the country.

During the event they discussed trends and prospects for the development of the global IT education market, synergy of education and innovation and plans for the development of IT education in Ukraine for 2024.

Initiative of the Year

This year the initiative "Growing Stronger Together!" was launched, which is aimed at teachers, heads of educational institutions, school psychologists, parents, heads of territorial communities, employees of community education authorities, and most importantly - it is focused on every Ukrainian child. The initiative has 6 main directions: new teacher competences under martial law, human and civil rights, psychological support, support for children with special educational needs, safe educational space in educational institutions. The initiative plans to reach 1,000 communities in just 1 year.

Innovation of the Year

Artificial intelligence has come to all spheres of human life seriously and for a long time. It has not bypassed the sphere of education as well. In December, a large-scale sociological research among schoolchildren of grades 8-11 "Artificial Intelligence in general secondary education" was completed.

And for the effective application of AI in education, a comprehensive approach was introduced: a professional development course for teachers "Artificial Intelligence in Education", which has already been successfully completed by more than 30,000 teachers from schools, vocational schools and universities. Special lessons for students on the use of AI have also been developed.

Even the annual Open Ukrainian Language Marathon was held this year with the help of artificial intelligence.

Opportunity of the Year

How many languages you know - so many times you are human. This famous statement of Goethe is more relevant than ever in our time of total globalisation. Studying foreign, and above all European languages is now extremely important for Ukrainians in the context of integration of our state into the EU.

In February, the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine launched the National Ecosystem for English Language Learning and Testing, and in November, a platform for learning Polish for Ukrainians was launched, which received the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine's official approval for use in educational institutions.