Ukraine

Preprimary education in Ukraine is included in the state educational system. It is subordinate to the Ministry of Education. The major types of preschool facilities are nursery schools (dytyachi yasla), which take care of infants from six weeks to three years old, and kindergartens (dytyachi sadki), which are intended for children from three to six years of age. Orphans and children without proper parental care are placed in children's homes, boarding kindergartens, and or family-type and sanatorium-type facilities. There are also specialized preschool institutions for children with physical and mental disabilities, as well as other diseases. The length of stay at most of the facilities is nine hours, but there are also institutions, which work on a 24 hour basis. Preschools provide childcare and initial intellectual, physical, and aesthetic education. Special emphasis is made on the preparation of children for primary school. Classes are devoted to the development of speech and elementary numerical skills, singing, dancing, foreign languages, and art. The government encourages the study of the Ukrainian language and culture. Teachers for preschool institutions (vykhovateli) are trained at specialized departments of teacher training schools, institutes, and universities, as well as advanced training and retraining institutes.

The 1980s witnessed the maximum enrollment of children in public preschools. The economic changes of the late 1980s and 1990s deprived preprimary institutions of regular financing, which had been guaranteed by the centralized Soviet state. Fifty-eight percent of all the facilities had previously belonged to particular enterprises, as well as collective and state farms. The bankruptcy or disastrous financial state of industrial enterprises and collective farms have endangered the existence of the entire network. Other negative factors, which have a profound impact on the state of preprimary education, are the declining birth rate, high infant mortality (15.2 per 1,000 newly born babies; 18.8 in rural areas), and unemployment among parents. Consequently, the number of preschools decreased approximately from 25,000 (with 2,428,000 children) in 1990 to 18,000 (with 1,100,000 children) in 1998. The majority of preschools have been subordinated to the municipal administrative organs, but the local budgets cannot cope with their financing. Many of the surviving facilities are barely able to meet sanitation requirements. The funds are insufficient for the renovation and further development of the institutions. There is a steady tendency towards shifting the burden of financing preprimary facilities from the state to the family. The fees, which used to be symbolic before the 1990s, are growing; many families cannot afford them. Since the state provides a small allowance for 1 non-working parent until the baby reaches the age of 12 months, young mothers usually prefer to stay home with their infants, rather than take them to a nursery.

The transition to a market economy calls for new approaches and forms of work in preprimary education. In order to balance state financing and family needs, preschools offer a variety of options, including short term stay, seasonal services, and variable cost programs. According to the state statutes and regulations, the fees directly depend on the family income. Children from low income or incomplete families attend preschools free of charge. The emerging non-state institutions offer diverse new services (e.g., aesthetic education, foreign language instruction, and swimming). They are usually expensive and are aimed at well to do families. Complex facilities, school plus kindergarten, are gaining popularity in rural areas. In 1998 Ukraine had 981 such combined institutions.

The laws on Preschool Education, On Protection of Childhood, and On Approval of the State Standard for Preschool Education aim for the further development of the preprimary network. Amongst others, they set the goal of ensuring the conjunction between the preprimary and primary school curricula. The publications in the journal Doshkilne Vykhovannia (Preschool Education) are specifically devoted to issues that deal with the development of new educational technologies for preprimary institutions.

Complete general (non-professional) education in Ukraine lasts 11 years and includes 3 stages:

• primary school (first to fourth grade)
• basic secondary school (fifth to ninth grade)
• upper secondary school (tenth to eleventh grade).

Legally, each of the stages can function separately, but, in practice, they all usually coexist under the same roof. In 1998-1999 Ukraine had an approximate total of 22,000 general education schools with 6,876,000 students and 569,000 teachers; in 12,000 schools with 5,938,000 students all the 3 stages were combined. In the future, the complete period of study at a secondary school is to be extended to 12 years.

Basic nine year education is compulsory. The school year lasts from 1 September to 1 June and is divided into quarters. There are four vacations: a week in early November, two weeks for the New Year holidays, a week at the end of March, and two to three months in the summer. School is held five or six days a week, depending on the decision of the school council. Classes last from 35 to 45 minutes. The intervals between them are from 5 to 25 minutes, and there is no additional lunch break.

The state standards for general education are developed by the Ministry of Education, the National Academy of Sciences, and the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of Ukraine. Basic curricula approved by the Cabinet of Ministers include an invariable part, established on the state level and the same for all educational institutions of this kind, and the variable part, which takes into account regional peculiarities and is constructed by the institution itself.

The majority of schools are coeducational. From the very beginning students (uchni or vykhovantsi) are divided into classes of 25 to 30 children, which will continue to study as a permanent group until the end of school. This allows them to develop close friendships with their classmates. On the whole, Ukrainian culture is collectivist, and team activities play an important part in the educational process. Evaluation is based on numerical grades: five is excellent; four, good; three, satisfactory; and two, unsatisfactory (failure). Grade "one" is unofficial, but can be sometimes used by teachers to emphasize the student's poor performance. Grading is done publicly. At the end of the academic year, the best students are awarded certificates of excellence.

Each school is managed by a director who is responsible for the organization of the educational process, methodological work, extracurricular activities, and school finance. The highest organ of school self-government is the Educational Council, which adopts the school charter and makes final decisions about the organizational structure, adoption of curricula, introduction of innovations, and other issues of major importance. It also cooperates with the parents' committee, local administrative organs, nongovernmental organizations, and other educational institutions.

The traditional age of entry into primary school is seven. The educational reform of 1984 attempted to lower the school age to six. However, the educational system was not ready to cope with the new responsibilities. There were not enough classrooms, adequately trained teachers, proper equipment, and good textbooks. As a result, prospective first graders are offered two options: either to enter school at the age of seven, study for three years, skip the fourth grade, and go on to the secondary school level (fifth grade); or start school at six and cover the same program in four years with an easier work load. The Law on General Education adopted in 1999 envisages gradual transition to a four year primary school paradigm, which will embrace all the eligible children.

The academic year is 175 days long, with an annual study load of 700 hours in the first and second grades and 790 hours in the third and fourth grades. The elementary curriculum consists of reading and writing in Ukrainian or other native languages, basics of mathematics, nature study, labor, music, health education, and physical training. The main part of the curriculum is the same on all the territory of the country and approved by the Ministry of Education. However, due to the tendency towards the diversification of programs, schools are allowed to introduce subjects of their own choice (e.g., valeology, foreign languages, environmental study, and dancing). The development of a whole new generation of textbooks has had a profound influence on the content of education. Children receive textbooks free of charge at the beginning of an academic year and return them to the library before summer vacation. The class is supervised by one teacher who is responsible for most of the subjects, as well as the organization of extracurricular activities. Students get cumulative grades for all the subjects at the end of each quarter and the school year.