08/06/2023
The European programme EU4DigitalUA supports the Ministry of Digital Transformation and the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine to implement the latest digital literacy practice
In the framework of the European programme EU4DigitalUA, to support Ukraine’s digital transformation, the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine and the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine have presented the primary results of the pilot project Computer Upgrade – IT-studies and the results of the third quarter of the academic year 2022-2023.
“The EU4DigitalUA programme continues its best efforts to support the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine and the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine to bring the latest digital literacy practices to Ukraine with the Updated Computing – IT-Studies project. With the support of the European Union, collaborating with international and Ukrainian experts, we aim to equip pupils in grades 1-11 with the digital skills they need to thrive in the modern world”, says María Gastón Betrán, FIIAPP’s Institutional Technical Coordinator for EU4DigitalUA.
The project was launched in September 2022. It involves 50 schools, 70 teachers and more than 3,000 students. Among them, 28% of the institutions are from villages, towns and urban-type settlements; 34% of the institutions are from cities; 26% of the institutions are from regional centres; and 12% of the institutions are from the capital city. A survey conducted among teachers on the results of the first term of the 2022-2023 school year showed that both students and teachers are happy to use innovative educational materials that replace textbooks by 50-70%.
“In Ukraine, the demand for IT specialisations continues to grow: in 2021, almost 17,000 graduates received a bachelor’s degree in IT, and by 2025, their number may reach 23,000. The IT studies represent an up-to-date IT curriculum that helps Ukrainian children to delve deeper into the world of IT and learn about the work of IT professionals. The project will give students the opportunity to choose a career in IT in the future, receive a living wage and join technological and socially important projects that shape the current and future society,” said Valeriya Ionan, Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation for European Integration.
“We want the number of IT specialists in Ukraine to grow steadily. To do this, we need to prepare them now. Our task was to update the school IT curriculum so that it meets modern needs and gives children the opportunity to acquire contemporary skills. We also wanted to train teachers to use new tools and approaches in teaching computer science. Thanks to our EU partners, Ukrainian experts, IT associations and companies, we have achieved this,” reported Dmytro Zavgorodnii, Deputy Minister of Education and Science for Digital Development, Digital Transformation and Digitisation.
“The IT-studios project is a testament to the strong support that the European Union continues to provide to Ukraine under its flagship programme, EU4DigitalUA. As the success of the digital society and economy, as well as the sustainability of Ukraine’s digital success story, will depend on its youth, it is crucial that citizens have the right digital skills to be competitive in the digital society. We are therefore delighted to welcome the results of the third quarter and to witness the tangible improvements it is bringing to the quality of IT education in Ukraine,” said Xavier Camus, Head of the Good Governance and Rule of Law Section of the Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine.
EU4DigitalUA has set up the project office and involved the best European and Ukrainian IT experts to create high quality content for students. The programme has conducted research on dozens of teaching platforms to provide best practices for studies, as well as assisting in the creation of digital competence frameworks to define the mix of knowledge and skills that students should possess.
Leading Ukrainian experts have been involved in the project to create educational content and effectively apply the latest digital technologies in teaching, learning and student assessment. Representatives of Ukrainian IT clusters and IT associations have also been involved, providing their technological expertise in the creation of topics not previously covered in the school subject “Informatics”, and in the creation of educational videos with experts working in IT.
In the third term, the project team managed to combine programming with history, art, music and literature. They also learned about the professions of mobile app and video game developers, and discovered the difference between an artist and a designer. Currently, in the last term, pilot educational resources on digital citizenship and cybersecurity are being implemented. “In the third term, training was given on algorithmisation and modelling, as well as programming. Pupils learned how to create algorithms and programmes in different age-appropriate environments,” said Oksana Pasichnyk, a project analyst for the IT Studios – Upgraded Computing project.
In the next school year, it is planned to expand the updated course to all schools, so that 4 million students can learn digital literacy. The course will be available free of charge online to all computer teachers and school teachers in Ukraine.
