TRANSFORMATION OF THE NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM IN THE CONTEXT OF DECENTRALIZATION

Abstract

The article considers the main aspects and problems of transforming an educational network in the current context of decentralization. Reference is made tothe urgent need of restructuring the responsibilities in education management between the center and regions providing the latter with independence in finances, organization and management at the regional level. It is emphasized that extending powers of the local executional bodies in management of educational institutions is the primary purpose of decentralization process. There was examined a pattern of decentralizing the basic education in Poland, according to which it was recommended to oblige the local self-government bodies to implement the education politics according to the local needs, finding the school administration and continually appraise the quality of education. It has been observed that currently the essential functions of state in education are assigned to the regional state administrations, regional and local educational departments. The local authorities are burdened with responsibilities of financing and providing the social security for children, defining the network of training institutions, maintaining their records and performing control over their activities. The author points out that at present the local and regional authorities duplicate the functions of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, which is non-effective. The author believes that the local government officials are able to perform political management well up to the officials of educational departments and administrations. However, prior to assignment of new obligations, it is necessary to develop and implement an effective retraining program for personnel and staff of the municipal structures. There have been reviewed the results of the pilot project: «Decentralization: education reforms at the local level», which experts had been analyzed the consistency of educational network. It pointed to the major areas of concern for the education reforms in local communities, namely a significant expense side of budget for education financing, low level of education in rural students according to the data obtained from the independent external assessment, and lack of subject oriented teachers. The author makes a conclusion that the purpose of decentralization in education should be an overall improvement of educational services and be based upon the following basic principles: students’ right to have a free choice of educational institution, equal access to good-quality education services, decent conditions to develop their abilities, improving the quality and efficiency of the educational process, effective use of types of resources.