High-quality educational measurements are needed to understand the scale of educational loss and compensatory measures for them – Serhii Horbachov

The Ministry of Education and the Committee on Education have begun to approach the issue of academic loss and its compensation constructively. Hearings were held at the Committee on Education, and a program was introduced to develop a concept for restoring educational losses. This issue has moved forward. However, there is still a lack of quality academic measurements.

It was emphasized by Serhii Horbachov, Ukrainian Educational Ombudsman, during a discussion at the main discussion platform, BrainHub, at the Media Center Ukraine – Ukrinform. 

“In order to compensate, we need to understand what we used to have and what we have now. It is almost impossible to determine this empirically. It is only a minimal experience. I see my classroom as a teacher, and a principal can see a school. But real serious research is needed for informed policy and implementation,” he explained.

In her turn, Inna Sovsun, People’s Deputy of Ukraine, First Deputy Education and Science Minister of Ukraine (2014-2016), emphasized the need to monitor educational loss, which will assess each individual child.

“Because a figure like 30% of children has the fifth-grade program unfinished gives no indication to understand what the strategy of pedagogical behavior with this particular student should be,” she said.

The MP added that we need an approach that would allow us to determine the level of each student, the loss, and how to recover.

“And then we need to determine the mechanism whether the additional classes, additional work of the teacher, or an additional tutor, etc., is the best option to address the problem. It is critically wrong to simply conduct monitoring, determine this loss, and then do nothing about it. We need monitoring to make up for these losses, which will require money. This should be made clear right away—it will require money. But the truth is that if we don’t invest this money, the consequences will be more catastrophic,” explained Inna Sovsun.

BrainHub is the country’s main discussion platform created by the Media Center Ukraine – Ukrinform. It brings together experts from the state and civil society sectors. BrainHub hosts intellectual discussions around the issues of the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine. It’s the birthplace of the best ideas that will become the foundation for the road map of Ukraine’s reconstruction in all sectors: economy, infrastructure, education, agriculture, security, digital, etc.

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