Ukrainian high school students are moving abroad. The main reasons for this are not a lack of patriotism among students, but problems in the state’s educational policy, the first educational ombudsman, Serhiy Gorbachev, told Telegraf. He explained that the education system does not provide sufficient conditions for learning and does not offer a clear development strategy.
Among the problems affecting the education sector, the ombudsman singles out the excessive workload of teachers. Instead of focusing on the learning process, teachers are forced to perform numerous administrative tasks, participate in competitions and fill out reports. At the same time, low salaries, inadequate working conditions and a lack of modern equipment compound the difficulties.
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Gorbachev also drew attention to an important social problem. Many parents decide to send their children abroad not because of a lack of patriotism, but because of concerns about the prospects of military service for their sons. According to him, the departure of about 300,000 high school students abroad is an alarming trend, although the accuracy of this figure still needs to be verified.
According to the ombudsman, the root of the problem lies in the fact that education in Ukraine is not perceived as a strategic investment in the future. Funding for the education sector is largely dependent on international aid rather than public investment. The absence of a long-term approach to the development of the education system threatens to further deteriorate the situation, Gorbachev believes.
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