The MES hopes for the support of local authorities in implementing high-speed Internet, in particular, connecting all communal schools to it. This was discussed during the meeting of the Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine, Liliya Hrynevych, with the head of the Odesa Regional State Administration, Maksym Stepanov, and his deputy, Serhiy Koleboshin.
"The 21st century has given us many new opportunities in the field of education, and online education is one of them. I sincerely welcome the fact that Odesa is one of the leading regions that purposefully develops online education. These are new opportunities both for children from rural areas and for educators. Thanks to online courses, they can use the experience and achievements of the best teachers of Ukraine. This is very important, because now children from rural areas do not have equal access to quality education, especially compared to the opportunities available to their peers in big cities. However, you must understand that online education projects will not work successfully unless every remote school is connected to high-speed Internet. After all, the use of online resources, especially in lessons, should be as convenient as possible," emphasized Liliya Hrynevych.
The head of Odesa Regional State agreed and noted that the local government should work on this and, in particular, establish contacts with socially responsible businesses that understand the importance of education for the development of the country.
"In my opinion, the online courses that we have launched to prepare schoolchildren of Odesa for the external examinations are a very high-quality resource. We have a very large area, and we really have problems with the level of passing the ZNO. In this way, we want to improve the situation and give more opportunities to children to use their chance in this life," added Maksym Stepanov.
The minister also raised one of the most painful issues of the region - the distribution of educational subsidies for science and mathematics classrooms for schools and the purchase of buses to transport children from the village to good and well-equipped schools. So, over the last two years, the region did not use the money provided to it for these expenses from the state budget.
"Yesterday, I received information that you have already distributed funds among local communities and are only waiting for tomorrow's regional council meeting to transfer the funds. I'm glad that you were actually able to cope with this task in a month - this is a significant progress. Today, when the state allocates funds for the development of the material and technical base and infrastructure of schools, we cannot simply not spend this money. Although I understand that you had problems with the work of the regional education department," said Hrynevych.
The head of Odesa Regional State also added that by the end of the year, the region plans to increase the number of reference schools from 2 to 17.
"The decision to create the first two schools this year has already been made, that is, we already have four, but we will continue to work in this direction," Maksym Stepanov explained.
