Electronic Resources for Education (UA0084)

Providing school children, parents and educators with cutting-edge education electronic resources and services One of key components of systemic reform of secondary education stipulated by the Concept Note of State Policy on Reforming Secondary Education (New Ukrainian School) until 2029 as approved by the CMU Ordinance # 988 of 14.12.2016 aimed to establish a modern education environment, including e-environment that will prove necessary conditions, means and technologies for instruction. The Law of Ukraine “On Education” adopted in September 2017 provides for the right of everyone to access to e-textbooks and other multimedia training resources in line with the procedure established by law. It also entails that to provide this right, a central executive authority in the field of education and science should set up and maintain a specific information Internet resource where the free-of-charge e-textbooks or electronic versions of printed textbooks for all secondary education courses are fully uploaded. Actions Responsible Timeframe Partners Indicator 1. Launching the beta- Ministry of Education and 1 st quarter of 2019 IT Ukraine association, ToR developed, software produced, beta- 25 version of National Education Electronic Platform Science State e-Government Agency other CSOs and international organizations (upon their consent) version of the Platform launched 2. Ensuring the operation of the National Education Electronic Platform -//- Throughout 2019 -//- Adequate operation of all services of the National Education Electronic Platform and the use of the Platform by school children and educators is ensured Expected results of this activity are ensuring the use of cutting-edge ICT tools for everyone’s access to the public educational, research and information resources, including e-textbooks; developing and introducing new forms, methods and technologies of instruction.

15. Introduce electronic resources for school education

Language of the commitment as it appears in the action plan: [132] Providing school children, parents and educators with cutting-edge education electronic resources and services

One of key components of systemic reform of secondary education stipulated by the Concept Note of State Policy on Reforming Secondary Education (New Ukrainian School) until 2029 as approved by the CMU Ordinance # 988 of 14.12.2016 aimed to establish a modern education environment, including e-environment that will prove necessary conditions, means and technologies for instruction.

The Law of Ukraine “On Education” adopted in September 2017 provides for the right of everyone to access to e-textbooks and other multimedia training resources in line with the procedure established by law. It also entails that to provide this right, a central executive authority in the field of education and science should set up and maintain a specific information Internet resource where the free-of-charge e-textbooks or electronic versions of printed textbooks for all secondary education courses are fully uploaded.

Milestones:

1. Launching the beta-version of National Education Electronic Platform
2. Ensuring the operation of the National Education Electronic Platform

Start Date: January 2019

End Date: December 2019

Context and objectives

Ukraine’s Law on Education guarantees all citizens the right to a high-quality and affordable education. [133] It also requires the government to create an online resource that provides full-text e-textbooks for all secondary education courses free of charge. However, this centralized e-resource is not yet available and is the focus of this commitment. To achieve this objective, the government plans to launch a National Education Electronic Platform (Platform). The related activities have specific indicators, which make the commitment verifiable. Due to the consequent availability of free online educational resources, this commitment relates to access to information and technology and innovation for education.

This commitment continues from progress made before this action plan. In 2018, the Ministry of Education and Science (MES) adopted a collaborative regulation for the Platform, held online consultations, [134] published a resulting report, and issued a revised version of the decree (#523). [135] The regulation outlined the legal and administrative foundations of the e-platform that this commitment will now create.

The government expects the Platform to use cutting-edge ICT tools to improve everyone’s access to public educational resources and facilitate new forms of instruction. [136] According to the MES official, the platform will facilitate digital competencies of students and teachers in Ukraine. [137] At the same time, various private Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) already exist. For example, EdEra [138] and Prometheus [139] both offer general courses in Ukrainian. In the opinion of a civil society expert of Prometheus, high-quality education content is already available abroad; state-run MOOC will not be able to compete for students and there is no demand for MOOCs by teachers. [140] It is questionable whether a public MOOC will be able to compete with private ones. Therefore, considering the available resources and the commitment aim, it has a minor potential.

Next steps

Taking into account the scope of this initiative, the existing competition, and the large amount of resources required, the IRM researcher recommends that MES focus on a particular model of the Platform to be implemented by the end of 2020. This could be a library of e-textbooks or a catalogue of best educational resources, both original Ukrainian and adapted international ones. In consultation with stakeholders, the MES should make sure to strike the right balance of value add beyond existing private solutions with the resources that would be necessary to do so.

15. Introduce electronic resources for school education

Completion: Limited

The Ministry of Education and Science conducted a procurement procedure and identified a contractor to build the National Education Electronic Platform. ^[123] However, a district court found that the procurement winner obtained an undue advantage; the tendered software did not meet requirements and had an inflated price. ^[124] The platform is now part of criminal investigations. ^[125] Furthermore, a civil society expert explained that the software was not open source. ^[126] Decree #521 indicates that the government has restarted the design and development of the online educational platform. ^[127]