The 2^nd Conference on Education Policy and Innovation (EPIC 2023) was held online from June 6 to 8, 2023. The KIX EAP hub is hosted by NORRAG and supported by the Global Partnership for Education Knowledge and Innovation Exchange in collaboration with the International Development Research Centre (Canada). The State Scientific Institution “Institute of Educational Analytics” (SSI “IEA”) is a partner of this conference for the second time, for the first time it took place in October 2021, during the 1^st EPIC 2021 conference.

This year’s conference was attended by experts from more than 40 countries in Europe, Asia and the Pacific, they presented their innovative research and shared best practices to address current national and regional issues in education, finding new promising solutions that can be scaled up to many countries around the world.

From the SSI “Institute of Educational Analytics”, the event was attended by Natalia Pron, PhD in Economics, Scientific Secretary of the SSI “IEA”, and Sergiy Londar, Acting Director of the SSI “IEA”, Doctor of Economics, Professor, who presented a report on “Transformation of information and analytical tools for educational management under martial law conditions in Ukraine“. The presentation examined how Ukrainian schoolchildren continue to receive educational services in the context of Russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine, regardless of their location. It was also presented the dynamics of changes in the number of students in general secondary education institutions (GSEIs) by regions of Ukraine in 2021/2022 and 2022/2023, the distribution of GSEI students by forms of wartime education; the location of internally displaced Ukrainian students abroad, which, according to the military-civilian administrations of the regions of Ukraine as of June 2023, is about 510 thousand students.

Sergiy Londar paid special attention to key educational management information tools that have successfully proven themselves in Ukraine and are often used by educational managers under martial law. Using the capabilities of two national EMIS, of which the SSI “IEA” is the technical administrator, in 2022 and 2023, the collection, cascade verification, secure storage and dissemination of educational statistics was ensured despite the challenges of wartime. Another important information tool was the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine’s dashboard on the state of education in wartime: more than 100 administrative data indicators are collected every ten days from regional civil-military administrations in the regions, including those where hostilities are taking place. This allows educational managers to respond quickly to the problems of the sector related to the war. In addition, an information tool called Solid Info was developed to assess the performance of education managers. Solid Info indicators reflect the key characteristics of the state of education in the regions and the country as a whole, are visualized in the form of a heat matrix, and allow for quick identification of problematic aspects of the educational network, as well as the identification of areas where managers’ efforts to develop education in the regions should be prioritized.

The experience of Ukraine’s education system during martial law can be valuable for many countries in similar circumstances, as wars, climate change, and epidemics are all risks in the modern world that can lead to the sudden displacement of many people from their homes, disrupt children’s access to education, increase social inequality, etc. Therefore, Ukraine’s innovative experience in creating and using information-based educational management tools can be replicated in other countries where teachers, students, and their parents are forced to move.

The conference program is available here. Additional conference materials are available on the  NORRAG website.