Different education: transition from a conveyor school to a garden school

On October 5-6, Kyiv will host the educational festival “Education Miracle 2024”, which will combine two key events: an exhibition for parents and students and a forum dedicated to the future of education. The exhibition will provide a wide range of educational opportunities, from preschool programs to adult education, and the forum will be a space to discuss critical changes in Ukraine's education system. Special attention will be paid to the current challenges and opportunities that are transforming the educational process. Over the course of two days, experts will share their ideas and case studies aimed at making Ukrainian education more modern and flexible. Vitaliy will be one of the key speakers at the forum. In a conversation with him, we discussed how social changes influence the formation of new educational approaches and how they can help adapt the system to modern challenges and needs of society.

On the eve of the event, UNN talked to Vitaliy Khromets, Doctor of Philosophy, coordinator of the initiative group at Insha Osvita, Co-Founder/CEO at ncraft, director of the Nestor Center .  

- Vitaly, please tell us about your topic of speech at the Forum "Education of Divosvitu". What key ideas do you want to convey to your audience?

The topic of my speech is “Education that Shapes and Transforms”.

I will focus on the role of the teacher in two key processes: development and formation.

Development is a natural process that depends on genetic factors and conditions. For example, speech development: the ability to speak is inherent in each of us. According to age, speech gradually develops, but this process is only indirectly controlled by us.

formation, unlike development, depends on the environment we create. For example, the quality of a child's speech - in Ukrainian or English, clear or not - depends on the choice and efforts of adults.

If a person has already acquired a certain form, but he is not perfect, for example, his speech is not pure, then the process of transformation comes into play . This means overcoming the previous form and forming a new, better one.

Thus, education plays a key role in the continuous improvement of a person. The educational process helps a person to transform, overcome the self of yesterday and become better today and in the future. This is what I want to focus on: the importance of education in the formation and transformation of the individual.

- What are the main issues of this forum, and why do you consider it so relevant right now? How do you see the difference between this event and other educational forums?

The Forum "Education of Divosvitu" is really a very extraordinary, even extraordinary event. It is dedicated primarily to trying to imagine the future of Ukraine and education for this future.

“Education of the Miracle World” is a forum that helps us to comprehend the path to the dream Ukraine, the world that Andriy Zelinsky metaphorically calls ”the world of the miracle.” This is the future Ukraine without corruption, poverty and conflict, the country we want to build.

Education is the key factor that should be preparing people, the citizens of the future Ukraine, today. It is the link between our vision of a better future and the efforts we are making today to prepare people who can embody this image of the future.

And right now, in a time of trials, we need to think about who we want to become after getting out of the war, and how education can help us in this process.

- In your opinion, how important is freedom in education for the formation of creative and responsible citizens? What principles should be laid down to achieve this goal?

Education is a natural right, a fundamental principle based on freedom. Freedom is the factor that created Western civilization, and it is fundamental to education. If we do not recognize that everyone is endowed with free will, then the educational process can turn into indoctrination, when a person is formed according to other people's standards without taking into account his desires.

This is a very important point - it is important to strike a balance: on the one hand, education has an ideal that educators are guided by in order to prepare the future generation. On the other hand, the freedom of the student must be respected, allowing them to make their own decisions about the pace of learning, the direction of development, and the focus on certain aspects.

We must respect the individual characteristics of each child and ensure diversity in education. This means moving from a conveyor school to a kindergarten school, where each child grows like a tree due to their inner potential.

As the great Grigory Savich Skovoroda used to say, the main task of education is to “fence the apple tree so that the pig does not dig up the roots.” In other words, our task is not to hinder the child's development, but to facilitate it, relying on the student's free will.

- in the context of global changes and war with Russia, what challenges do the Ukrainian education system Face? How do these circumstances affect its transformation?

Both for society in times of war, the main task is to survive, and for education in these conditions - to survive and continue to function. Despite all the difficulties, such as lack of funding, personnel and constant shelling, it is important to maintain at least a minimum level of Education. Otherwise, we risk losing an entire generation, which can lead to the degradation of society in the face of subsequent challenges in post-war Ukraine.

On the one hand, we need to preserve what we already have, but at the same time start thinking strategically and building a new education system for post - war Ukraine-the one in which we want to live as a society. It should be a fair, responsible society where human dignity is respected - what they fought for on the Maidan.

Thinking about the future means not only preserving the existing system, but also creating a new education that will meet the challenges and difficulties that Ukraine has faced. The modern education system no longer meets the criteria that the war and the future set for us.

We must realize that the current system needs to be changed so that it forms people who are able to build the desired Ukraine — the "world of divosvit", using the metaphor of father Andrey Zelinsky.

- As the coordinator of the Other Education initiative and the founder of ncraft, you work a lot on new educational approaches. What practical cases can you share about their integration into modern educational processes?

Yes, I am the coordinator of the initiative group "other education". Our community is convinced that it is not necessary to build a new education by denying the old one. Instead, we must create a different education — along with the existing system, relying on its best elements, but adapting it to the needs of modern and future Ukrainian society.

I am also the head and co-founder of the agency ncraft, which helps educational institutions develop concepts and strategies. We cooperate with schools, secondary and higher education institutions that strive to improve the level of education and are not satisfied with the current state. Our work is to carry out transformational changes at the level of rethinking the conceptual and strategic foundations of these institutions.

One of the interesting cases is requests from two Ukrainian cities, where small groups of people realized the need for transformation in their city. They decided to share these changes by creating a fundamentally new educational institution that would train new citizens who can change the urban community.

This movement, aimed at creating new educational institutions on a new basis, not only to improve the old one, but also for real innovation, inspires me and our team incredibly.

- What models of education from other countries do you consider potentially effective for adaptation in Ukraine? How can they affect the improvement of the quality of education here?    

There are many outstanding national educational models. For example, the Finnish education system. However, it is not universal and cannot simply be transferred to another context. This model grew out of Finland's cultural environment, based on their cultural components and traditions. This is the reason why no educational system can be mechanically transferred to another soil without adapting to local conditions.

It is important for us as a society to determine what tasks we set for education. The Finnish system is focused on equality, so if this is a priority for us, we can take it as a basis. If we want to be highly competitive and selective, we should look at the Singapore model. If our goal is to train people with high knowledge of mathematics, we should analyze the best math schools in the world.

However, I believe that Ukraine should develop its own educational model, based on its pedagogical traditions. We have three outstanding teachers - Konstantin Ushinsky, Anton Makarenko and Vasily Sukhomlinsky - who are recognized at the world level. Their theoretical and practical experience can become the basis for creating Ukrainian Humanitarian Technology, which can later become an example for other countries.

Ukraine should have the ambition to create its own educational model based on our culture, pedagogical and educational traditions.

- What prompted you to take up educational projects such as "other education" and "Nestor Center"? What personal experience or moments of your life significantly influenced your views on reforming Ukrainian Education?

The initiative to create the public organization "Nesterovsky center" and the initiative group "other education", which I coordinate, arose from the understanding that the current education system has exhausted its resource and potential.

Why do we think so?

The Ukrainian educational system does not satisfy children, parents, employers, or even the state. Despite this, it continues to function. But the problem cannot be solved simply by closing all schools and opening new ones, because this will create an educational gap and lead to a deterioration in the quality of knowledge for the next generation.

We decided to act in stages. First, we need to clearly define what the education of the future Ukraine should look like, develop a concept, and implement it through projects at different levels: from the individual trajectory of a student, the family level, to school institutions, communities, cities, and even the state system.

Our goal is to turn these conceptual developments into concrete projects that can be implemented at all levels — from the individual and family to the state. We actively disseminate information, lobby for changes and see that awareness of the need for education reform is already available at all levels - from the family to the state. However, in our opinion, the current efforts are still insufficient for real change.

It is clear that the war is not the best time for reforms, but we must preserve what we have and build new education after the war ends, especially in the liberated territories, where infrastructure and schools have been destroyed. In these circumstances, the project approach will become extremely important.

Our public organization " Nesterovsky center "and the initiative" other education " strive to contribute to this cause as much as possible.

- What are the main challenges you face in implementing educational projects? 

The main challenge in implementing projects is inertia, which is paradoxical. On the one hand, most people are dissatisfied with the current education system, but at the same time, they want their children's education to be similar to what they received. This is the key paradox.

Working with Project Managers and initiators, we are faced with the need to rethink. We need to learn how to critically evaluate not only the current education system, but also the one that we ourselves have passed. Only then will it be possible to start building a new, different education, minimally relying on old models.

The main challenge is to move away from one's own educational experience when creating a new education system. However, more and more people are joining this process, offering innovative approaches and projects that can become the basis for a new education system. These are projects that focus on the needs of the end user - children and their parents.

It is extremely important to understand that new education should be diverse, offering many options for educational institutions and projects. This will allow everyone to choose the learning format that best suits their individual needs and aptitudes.

We must abandon unification in education and create a variety of educational offers. Everyone should find their own place in the system, where they can feel happy in the learning process.

- What changes in the Ukrainian education system would you like to see in the near future? What do you think should be the main priorities for creating an effective, inclusive and modern educational model?

In the near future, I would like us as a society and the state implementing educational policy to understand that the existing education system does not need to be actively reformed or interfered with. It should be supported and at some point allowed to withdraw.

Efforts should focus on building an alternative education system with different approaches and new insights. We need to create institutions that will function on a new basis, offering a different approach to learning.

When restoring schools destroyed during the war, it is important not to return to template projects, but to create new educational spaces with a modern organization. The leaders of these institutions should be people with innovative thinking, able to assemble a team of like-minded people and choose the right teachers. Thus, we will create cells of new education.

It is important that the restored school infrastructure is built according to new principles, and not just recreates the old system within new walls. We should use this moment to create innovative educational institutions where fundamentally new approaches will be implemented.

I want the state to decide on this experiment: not just reform the old system, but build a new one, with new leaders, innovative teachers who will implement modern approaches. This will make education inclusive, taking into account the individual characteristics of each student.

As Ukraine rebuilds its infrastructure after the war, it has a chance to set an example for the world by creating a qualitatively new education. I am convinced that we as a nation have the intellectual resources to do so.