On August 15-16, 2019, the All-Ukrainian Scientific-Pedagogical Conference “Current trends in improving the quality of education” was held at the National Ecological and Naturalistic Center of students. Sergiy Londar, Director of the State Scientific Institution “Institute of Educational Analytics” (hereinafter – SSI “IEA”), Professor, Doctor of Economic Sciences addressed the meeting.

The main organizer of the event was the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine (hereinafter – MES) together with NGO “Ukrainian Educational Research Association”, National Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of Ukraine, National Academy of Higher Education of Ukraine, publishing house “Country of dreams” and National Ecological and Naturalistic Center of students. The conference brought together authorized officials of education authorities, teachers of general secondary and out-of-school education, scientific and pedagogical workers of higher education institutions, innovators in the field of education and representatives of non-governmental organizations.

The main purpose of the conference was to discuss the current trends, problems and prospects of ensuring the education quality in Ukraine in the context of sustainable development of the state and subject to the provisions of the Concept of state policy implementation in the sphere of education reforming “New Ukrainian School“.

Vadym Karandiy, a Deputy Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine opened the conference and welcomed all the participants. The meeting was continued by the keynote speakers:

• Yurii Demydiuk – Head of the Expert Group on Out-of-School Education of the Directorate of Inclusive and Out-of-School Education of the MES;
• Borys Chyzhevskyi – Head of the Secretariat of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Committee on Science, Associate Professor, Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences;
• Volodymyr Stretovych – Member of Parliament (People’s Deputy) of Ukraine of the previous convocations, Professor, the Honored Lawyer of Ukraine;
• Oleksandr Yakymenko – First Deputy Director of the State Service of Education Quality of Ukraine, Ph.D. in Economics;
• Serhiy Pyrozhkov – Vice-President, Academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Doctor of Economic Sciences, Professor;
• Sergiy Londar – Director of the SSI “IEA”, Doctor of Economic Sciences, Professor;
• Oleh Petrov – Chairman of the Board of the Ukrainian Youth Aerospace Association “Suzirya”;
• Olena Bykovska – President of the International Association of Out-of-School Education, Head of the Department of Out-of-School Education at the National Pedagogical University named after M. Drahomanov, Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Professor;
• Eduard Rubin – Director of “Telesens International Ltd.” company, Associate Professor at the National Technical University “Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute”, Ph.D. in Technical Science;
• Volodymyr Verbytskyi – Director of the National Ecological and Naturalistic Center of students, Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Professor, Academician of the National Academy of Higher Education of Ukraine.

In his speech, Sergiy Londar drew attention to the important contribution of the SSI “IEA” in the process of improving the quality of education sphere, which implies the introduction of IT technologies into the education system by creating modern educational measurement tools. For this reason, a prerequisite for successful reforming of the education sector is to create backward linkages between the practical needs of the Ukrainian economy and the educational process at the level of profiled secondary education, vocational (vocational and technical) education and higher education. Such an interrelation allows establishing the newest tools – education management information systems for identifying the “graduate tracer of a successful person” (EMIS for graduate tracer studies). The use of this system in Ukraine will enable to establish a more distinct link between the labour market and education sector. In addition, it will improve the mechanism of budget funding of educational institutions and refine the content of educational services and the process of its providing with the aim of receiving advantages by a person in adulthood.

Following the plenary session, the work of the conference continued in such sections:

1. Section of Directors of the educational institutions and organizations: “High-quality management of structures and institutions in the field of education”.
2. Section of the methodological service of an educational sphere: “The role of methodological support as a resource for quality assurance of the educational process”.
3. Section of inclusive education: equal access to quality education.
4. Section of primary school: “Creating a qualitative educational environment in terms of content for students of the first cycle of study of the New Ukrainian School”.
5. Section of secondary education: “Managing the development of basic educational competencies by means of innovative educational technologies”.
6. Section of out-of-school education: “Prospects for qualitative out-of-school education development in the context of modern transformational changes”.
7. Section of high school: “Quality of methodological support as a resource for educational process assurance”.

According to the results of the conference, a collection of scientific papers was prepared and all attending the event received Certificates of participation in the conference.

At the end of the event, Volodymyr Verbytskyi, Director the National Ecological and Naturalistic Center of students thanked all the attendees for taking an active part and expressed his hope for further fruitful cooperation in order to improve the quality of the national educational system.

Photo from the National Ecological and Naturalistic Center of students