Working profession from school desk: what is behind the new “reform” of the Ministry of Education and Science for high school students
A textbook on algebra gives way to a wrench, and instead of thinking about “man and the world”, students are offered to master the basics of locksmithing between biology exams. The Ukrainian school, which is already barely holding on, gets a new mission: now it will also be a center for training personnel for the labor market. The Ministry of Education and Science seems to have seriously decided that the best way to help a child who is listening to a siren lesson is to hand them a certificate in metalworking or welding basics. Because why does she need a deep education or stable mental health, when she can have a “unique opportunity” to leave school with a certificate and work qualifications that she did not choose, did not master properly and, quite possibly, will never need. Another “reform” is on the horizon, which, instead of solving educational problems, adds new ones, and now also with a “professional component”.
Certificate plus wrench: bonus package from the Ministry of Education and Culture
Starting from 2027, the Ukrainian school will open a new era: high school students are promised not only knowledge of chemistry and literature, but also a specialty in addition as a bonus. The idea is as follows: along with the traditional certificate, the graduate will also receive a qualification, say, electrician, cook or construction worker. This is not a joke or fantasy of teachers after an exhausting meeting, but another reform from the Ministry of Education and Science. The approach is led by Iryna Shumyk, head of the Directorate of Vocational Education of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports, who assuresthat all this will be for the benefit of the student. And at the same time, for the benefit of the labor market, which is chronically understaffed in fields that do not smell like a diploma, but pay better than some office positions.
The idea is simple and consists in the fact that part of the schools will turn into academic lyceums, where children will prepare for NMT and admission to universities. The other part goes to professional lyceums, where students, in addition to studying general education subjects, will learn real professions. Chemistry and physics will not disappear, but they will sound in a new way. For example, instead of a dry torque formula, students will visually study the operation of a car engine with a wrench in hand, somewhere between a break and a geography module. The plan envisages that schools will cooperate with vocational schools, modernize laboratories, update workshops and even prepare teachers for the new reality.
Everything would be nothing if it were not for the real state of Ukrainian schools, where some of them do not have electricity and stable Internet, some are in ruins, and some are even under evacuation. However, the bureaucratic machine confidently moves towards the goal, so that the student not only waits out the alarm in the shelter, but also has time to learn a little basic tile laying skills during this time. If the reform works at least partially, then young people will really have a chance to start a professional life with real skills, and not just with a school certificate and an injury from NMT. This can partially reduce the gap between education and the labor market, especially in regions where youth unemployment is skyrocketing.
But there are also nuances, which, unfortunately, are not small. First, no one clearly explains how students will choose professions, according to which criteria they will be divided into academic and professional lyceums, who will be responsible for the quality of education, and whether the same workshops and specialists will be available in villages as in big cities. Secondly, the risk is obvious: a superficial set of “applied knowledge” can displace fundamental education, which you will never catch up with anywhere else.
And the main thing is that we have yet another ill-conceived reform, which once again does not take into account the basic conditions, namely: destroyed infrastructure, chronic exhaustion of teachers and children, and the reality of war, which constantly interferes with any “long-term vision”. Such an attempt to build a modern school on the ruins of an old one, while the roof is still smoking.
What they know abroad, but do not yet guess at the Ministry of Education and Culture
While in Ukraine they are preparing to sculpt a student and a philosopher and a tiler in one person, in some countries this process has long gained serious momentum with a clear scenario and budget. Vocational education for high school students abroad is a systematically built mechanism where the student knows where he is going, why, and what he will get as a result.
The Germans have a system that works like a Swiss watch. Two types of training are implemented there: theory at school and practice at a real enterprise. While PowerPoint presentations are created in Ukraine, in Germany a student goes to school three days a week, and the other two he twists nuts under the supervision of a master and even receives a real salary for it. This is probably why 80-90% of students stay to work where they did their internship. After all, when you learned to be a plumber not according to drawings in a textbook, but in a real workshop, then you become a plumber, and not a disappointed job seeker.
It is prestigious to be a young welder here. And the salary of a welder is not less than that of some bachelors in agricultural management in universities. A student chooses a field, studies at school, goes through practical training at the same time, and then has the opportunity to enter a university. That is, professional education does not look like a ticket to a lower class, but a normal path with several exits. In Ukraine, if you went to vocational school, then, as they say, “life didn’t work out.”
The Finns also introduced an equally interesting approach. They do not force the child to choose between “academic” and “professional” education as between life and death. In Finland, you can change direction. Here, it is not considered a disaster if at 16 you have not yet decided what you want to be. The programs are flexible, all schools have equal opportunities, and students are provided with the help of psychologists and career guidance specialists, because it is unlikely that a teenager can decide for himself which profession is suitable for him at this age.
In the USA, attention is also paid to professional education. Workshops in schools there are well equipped with full equipment with lasers, 3D printers and real cases. Vocational training is provided not for the conventionally “less able”, but for those who want to work with their hands and earn well. While everyone in Ukraine speaks with disdain for working professions, “if you don’t get into university, go and lay tiles, at least something will come of you.”
What is missing in Ukraine
Officials from the MES are trying to romanticize the image of a high school student with a wrench and a tiler’s diploma in his pocket, but it is worth looking at the truth. Unfortunately, our educational system has a whole bunch of things that are catastrophically lacking. And this whole reform is a bit like trying to open a restaurant with only a paper napkin and a dream.
In the speeches of the representatives of the Ministry of Education and Culture, the words about “modern workshops, laboratories, instruments” are heard. And in reality, we all know very well that in most schools, especially in rural areas, there are still old desks in the classrooms, and old stands adorn the walls, and in some places even the lamp is not lit. Ukrainian infrastructure so far exists only in documents and press releases of officials. There is a lot of talk about it, it is actively presented on forums, but in places it resembles more of a ghost than a real object.
The same “modern workshops” often turn out to be ordinary classrooms with yellowed linoleum and a conventional cabinet for “visibility”, which, by the way, the teachers accumulate at their own expense. No lathes, no modern equipment, no tile except the one falling off the wall in the powder room. And so, instead of the student learning to work with the material, he learns to work with his imagination, which is perhaps the most creative part of the entire program. Ukrainian schoolchildren are promised to learn a profession, but instead of a machine they are given only a visual, instead of equipment — instructions from Google. All this does not look like a reform, but an educational quest called “Gather knowledge from a textbook, a rope and two nails.”
Of particular concern is the question of who should prepare students for future professions. It is probably still the same universal teachers with a nervous breakdown. In the dreams of the ministry, a teacher who explains physics through the principles of motor operation, at the same time prepares for NMT, conducts career guidance, prepares a report for the director and checks piles of notebooks. But in reality, we have one person, without a decent salary, motivation and often without tools. This is no longer pedagogy, but survival, which is based only on the enthusiasm of educators. Ukrainian teachers, of course, are stable and real professionals, but not so much as to be a teacher, a master and a labor market consultant at the same time.
In Europe, employers fight for students like talented players in a football academy. They give equipment, pay for internships, then take them to work. And our business either looks at the reform from a careful fence, or pretends that it has not seen anything. And you can understand them, because no one wants to invest in a ghost. Cooperation between school and business exists only in the imagination of some officials and on the banner of conferences during reports. In fact, at most, students are taken once a semester on an “excursion” to an auto repair shop, where they will be allowed to hold a wrench and take a picture with it for the report.
In Helsinki or Zurich, it doesn’t matter whether you are from the countryside or the capital. In Ukraine, equal access to education remains only a beautiful idea. In theory, all children have the same opportunities. In practice, the rural school often turns into a place where the student learns about survival rather than profession. There are no tools, specialists, and even the banal Internet. Vocational education in the conditions of the village has rather the appearance of something intermediate between the “skilled hands” club and the “survived alone – help others” club. And while the capital’s lyceums are really preparing for the implementation of the latest programs, a school from a remote village is still repairing the door to the physics office at the expense of the parents’ committee.
MES launches educational transformations with the speed of a rocket, but only without fuel. One day officials present a new model, and the next day all schools in the country have to implement it without instructions, resources and equal opportunities. And as always, everything relies on the motto “somehow it will happen”, because the Ukrainian teacher is an amazing creature: he will be able to compile a program, lay tiles, and repair a router for a pittance. If only everything did not collapse in one day. Although sometimes it seems that even if it collapses, the MES will simply open another “pilot project”.
It is absolutely right that respect for technical and working professions should be no worse than for “white-collar workers”. Without electricians, the world does not light up, without plumbers, toilets do not work even in the best offices, and without tilers, there will be no pompous bathrooms where officials make their appeals about the importance of reforms. That is why the idea of recognizing the real value of such professions is not objectionable. In the civilized world, it is normal practice to respect someone who creates with hands.
However, there is one small “but”, the size of the state budget. Because when the next official of the Ministry of Education and Culture pathetically declares from the podium that “our children should have the opportunity to acquire a specialty already at school”, for some reason his own child is at this time undergoing an internship at a German lyceum or finishing a croissant after a philosophy lecture at some French private school. And there, strangely, no one urges her to pass the bricklaying module or pass the grinding standard by the end of the week.
From here, the question that hangs in the air is quite logical: if this reform is so progressive and “unique”, why is it intended only for children from Ukrainian shelters, and not for the children of those who approve these reforms? After all, no minister’s child learns to be a locksmith and make NMT at the same time. Perhaps because their parents are well aware of the real state of Ukrainian workshops, the level of teaching and the fact that reform without tools and teachers remains only an experiment.
The idea of integrating technical professions into schools looks interesting. Perhaps she will be able to change attitudes towards working professions by instilling respect. However, this respect should not start with empty promises, but with an example from above. Because while for some the tile is a “unique opportunity”, for others it will be another brick in the load. And all this concern for the future of children looks somehow fake, when the future of some is measured by a spatula, and others by an international diploma.
