COMMENTARY: Education in Ukraine: dilemmas and concerns (07/22/01)

COMMENTARY

Education in Ukraine: dilemmas and concerns

by Myron B. Kuropas, Ph.D.

Of all the areas of endeavor hardest hit by the collapse of Soviet rule in Ukraine, education is definitely near the top. While economic, political and social issues are being addressed by government officials in Ukraine, albeit somewhat lackadaisically, education is all but neglected.

At a time of high unemployment, national disillusionment, government corruption and a growing crime rate, education is not a priority in Ukraine. Teachers are paid infrequently. New textbooks are lacking. Schools are in disrepair. Students no longer perceive higher education as a guarantor of financial success.

Part of the reason, of course, is the socialist moral inheritance. One of the great paradoxes of Soviet education is that despite the most intensive efforts by Soviet educators to change human behavior and to produce the "new Soviet man," a person who was highly moral, patriotic, humane and committed to a universal Marxist-Leninist brotherhood, the result was near total failure.

Rather than moral individuals, the Soviet educational system, with its "unified educational front" of schools, youth organizations (Young Pioneers, the Komsomol) and society in general, "all following the leadership of the Communist Party," produced not a new culture "perfected through socialist enlightenment," but a depraved, callous and insular society incapable, as Mikhail Gorbachev learned to his sorrow, of meaningful reform. As soon as students discovered that Soviet society did not reflect Soviet educational ideals, disillusionment distrust and cynicism set in. The fumes of the resulting disintegration still linger in Ukraine.

This is not to say that Soviet education was totally bankrupt. On the contrary, Soviet education excelled in mathematics and the physical sciences. According to Abdusalam Gusseinov, a cult of knowledge " in the schools based on the ideal of scientific determinism ... A person whose head was loaded with diverse and systematized knowledge was a typical product of the Soviet system of education." There was a great emphasis on technical expertise and pragmatic goals. In contrast to current American educational practices, "the Soviet curricula were unconditionally aimed at the strongest students. They set a standard for learning that treated all students as if they were highly gifted." Parents were expected to be involved in the education of their children or suffer consequences on the job. Expectations were high and the results were high. The average student was pushed to excel. The gifted student was energized to triumph.

Despite their extraordinary technological success, "the ideal of scientific rationality and the belief in the power of reason began to be distrusted." During the late 1950s and early 1960s, writes Dr. Gusseinov, "it appeared that the conveyor-like system of education that was developed from classical paradigms of determinism was difficult to adapt to the transmission of modern knowledge." By the end of the 1980s, "it became evident that the Soviet system of education missed the computer stage of scientific-technological revolution."

There are other paradoxes and ironies as well. Despite the most brutally intense and unwavering efforts, Soviet education was unable to destroy two vestiges of "bourgeois ideology," namely religious belief and national consciousness. Religio-cultural awareness and ethnonational identity are presently the two pillars of Ukraine's national resurrection, especially in western Ukraine where the moral capital of the 1930s has not been totally obliterated by Sovietization. Religions help to restore the moral fiber of the Ukrainian people, and national consciousness restores Ukrainian pride. The situation in eastern Ukraine, where Communism reigned for 70 years and where a large Russian and Russified Ukrainian population lives, is much more problematic. Still, churches and synagogues are springing up all over Ukraine like mushrooms after a spring rain. And, despite complaints by a Russophile minority, the Ukrainian language, the bedrock of national cohesion, is being taught to the next generation along with Ukrainian history. Ukraine is slowly but perceptibly rising from the ashes.

Ironically, neither religious nor national education are supported by the European Union, the U.S. government and American foundations pouring money into Ukraine. Still surviving on the social capital of the Judeo-Christian moral foundations erected by past generations, as well as the national pride instilled by the historic struggles and victories of their ancestors, many educators in the West have become wedded to such socio-political trends as globalization and multiculturalism. Thinking Ukrainians struggling to literally redefine themselves as a nation see little difference between these concepts and the ideals of "internationalism" and "brotherhood" propagated by Soviet ideologues.

There are other problems as well. Ukrainian educators familiar with American education are not impressed with what they perceive American education to be. Visiting American inner-city schools on a short "lookie, lookie" tour sponsored by an American government agency does not exactly give a true picture. Nor do American B movies, American magazines and other distorted examples of "Americanism." One more paradox: at a time when Ukrainian educators are looking to the United States for direction, American educators offer little more than vapid slogans about "progressive education" and "self-esteem."

Is there anything Ukrainian educators can learn from American educators? Absolutely. First, they can learn from American mistakes and not repeat them in Ukraine. Second, they can follow the example of successful American schools which retain academic rigor while honoring the integrity of each individual student. Successful American schools do not follow the "cookie cutter" model common in Soviet schools nor do American educators demand lock-step discipline. From the earliest grades American educators create a climate of democratic self-discipline in the classroom based on mutual respect. Third, Ukrainian educators can address the needs of all children, not just the average and gifted. American schools have succeeded in developing programs which offer something for all children, even the most severely handicapped. School counselors and specially trained personnel as well as social workers are an integral part of American schools. It's expensive but it is a model that Ukrainian educators may wish to emulate in the future.

Ukrainian universities can also learn from such innovations of American higher education as adult education and the community college experience which encourages lifelong learning. Most important of all, Ukrainian graduate degrees need to be reviewed and tightened so that they are more in line with international standards. The idea that the "aspirantura" degree is equivalent to the Ph.D. is misleading, particularly since it requires no additional course work (the Ph.D. degree demands a minimum of three years of study after the bachelor's degree plus a dissertation) and can often be obtained with bribes and pay-offs, especially in the social sciences. During Soviet times higher degrees in the social sciences were obtained under questionable, quasi-political circumstances contributing to the perception in the West that they are academically worthless.

Despite all of these problems, I am confident in Ukraine's educational future. I am most impressed, for example, with the caliber of students at Ostroh Academy and the professors who teach there. Three of the professors have taught a semester at Northern Illinois University (NIU) and four of them have received their M.S. Ed. degrees within 18 months. They were hard workers who wrote their theses in English on Ukrainian themes. Two of the theses have been translated into Ukrainian, and one has been published by Ostroh University Press.

As part of their internship experience all four spent a semester in American elementary and secondary schools in a typical American community. They were able to observe and to comment on the pluses and minuses of American education and to bring back ideas that were relevant to the Ukrainian educational experience. The goal of the NIU/Ostroh program is to establish a department of psychology and education which can offer an M.S.Ed degree in education in such neglected foundations subjects as educational philosophy, educational psychology, history of education and social foundations of education.

The need for such courses and textbooks is great. A survey of some 225 teachers in the Rivne and Kyiv regions was conducted by NIU sociologists three years ago. The results were disappointing. They strongly suggested that most teachers had little faith in the Ukrainian government and in Ukraine's future as a democratic republic. It is disheartening indeed to think that these same disillusioned and discouraged teachers are charged with the responsibility of educating the next generation of Ukrainians.

It is my hope that American governmental agencies and foundations will eventually realize that there are no short-term, quick-fix solutions to the reconstruction of Ukrainian education. Teachers need to be retrained and new exuberant teaching cadres imbued with the idea that the teaching profession is a national calling that will determine the future of Ukraine. This is a long-term process. It is also my hope that the Ministry of Education in Ukraine will adopt a more dynamic approach to education and shed its Soviet-style mindset regarding new programs and ideas. All of this is a tall order, but it can be done with the right people in charge and the right attitudes among educators.

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