COMMUNICATION FOR THE NEW UKRAINIAN SCHOOL REFORM PROGRAM
Educational changes in simple terms
challenge
Conflicting perceptions of changes in the educational process
The New Ukrainian School is a key reform program of the Ministry of Education and Science. Its goal is to create schools that will provide not only knowledge, but also the ability to apply it. Instead of memorizing facts, students will acquire competencies, as well as values and skills that will be useful in their professional and private lives.
The reform program started in 2017 with elementary school, and in 2022 moved to basic (secondary) school. It involved the most ambitious changes in the educational process since Ukraine's independence, affecting not only students but also teachers and parents. That is why the reform attracted public attention from the beginning and received a great deal of feedback in the media and social networks. The lack of understanding of the changes that would take place in primary school fuelled rumours surrounding the reform program and doubts that it would be successful.
All stakeholders in the educational process needed clarification on how the reform would work, how learning would change, and how it would affect knowledge, results, and school education in general.
decision
Explain all aspects of the reform and detail its benefits
To explain the New Ukrainian School (NUS) reform program, debunk myths, and answer pressing questions from stakeholders, the Internews Ukraine team, together with the Learning Together project, developed a long-term communication campaign. It was aimed at different target audiences: parents of schoolchildren, teachers, students, and the broader public.
The first phaseof the campaign began shortly before the 2020 pandemic, which brought the process of online education in Ukraine to a new level. To talk about the new State Standard of Primary Education, changes in the educational process, the development of 11 key NUS competencies, and to engage teachers and parents in an exchange of views and experiences, we prepared 200 short articles and 20 long articles on relevant educational topics: adaptation to school, creation of the NUS library, patriotic and sex education, financial literacy, and more.
Our experts interviewed teachers from all over Ukraine, as well as psychologists, specialized professionals, and parents. The results were published in national online outlets (Ukrainska Pravda, nv.ua, Mirror of the Week), as well as in specialized publications for parents (osvita.ua, nus.org.ua).
A 3D tour and a series of videos clearly demonstrated how the Ukrainian educational space is changing.
To reach a wider audience, we also announced a call for regional media outlets to submit proposals for materials on the subject. We ultimately awarded mini-grants to 35 journalists around the country.
We prepared infographics explaining the key components of the reform program, published a series of posts on the Learning Together: Friendly School Facebook page, and launched the #ХочуДоНУШ hashtag campaign for educators and parents.
The second stage was a promotional campaign for the new professional teacher standard designed to inform teachers about its practical benefits. The professional standard helps teachers to set goals for self-development and professional improvement, plan professional development in line with required competencies, avoid biased assessment during testing and certification, keep abreast of changes in job descriptions and working conditions, and more.
The full-scale invasion, which began almost at the very start of the campaign, forced certain adjustments to the project's topics. In 2022, together with resilient Ukrainian educators, we prepared 8 articles for the media on how to teach and learn during the war. In videos for social media, teachers explained how they used the professional standard in their daily work.
Our team designed and produced 1800 teacher professional development diaries and 1200 posters, which were distributed to 42 teacher training centers and 8 postgraduate education institutes.
The third and final stage of the communication campaign explained the new professional standard for the head of a general secondary education institution, as well as the State Standard of Basic Secondary Education. In 2022, the NUS advanced into secondary schools, and we prepared 11 publications for national and specialized online outlets on how the implementation of the education standard was overcoming the challenges of war, as well as 92 thematic posts and 21 videos for social media.
result
15 million people reached amid the pandemic and full-scale war
Articles in popular online outlets about key changes and new principles of primary education in Ukraine have been viewed more than 530,000 times, while the project's Facebook materials received 2.5 million views. Materials by regional journalists about the NUS reform program have been viewed more than 7 million times.
More than 15 influencers joined the #WantNUSh hashtag campaign on Facebook, including educational ombudsman Serhiy Gorbachev, founder of the EdEra platform Oleksandr Elkin, founder of Parents SOS Olena Parfenova, and parenting bloggers Olena Hordiychuk, Kateryna Mischenko, and Hanna Lisovska. In addition to these influencers, there were more than 40 publications by educators and parents.
The professional development diaries received positive feedback from the teacher community, as demand for them was several times higher than circulation. In comments on Facebook posts, teachers noted that they would use them for planning, analyzing mistakes in their work, and charting their individual trajectories of professional development and self-improvement.
The communication campaign to explain the teacher standard received more than 50,000 interactions on social media, and articles in the media received 40,000 views. The campaign to explain the new professional standard for school principals reached more than 770,000 people, and the campaign to promote the state standard of basic secondary education reached more than 4 million.
Throughout the communication campaign, the Internews Ukraine team involved leading Ukrainian educators like National Director of the Learning Together Project Roman Shyian, expert of the Ministry of Education and Science's Reform Support Team expert Yulia Romanenko, coordinator of the Learning Together Project in Chernivtsi Oblast Iryna Unhuryan, Finnish educators and experts, Director General of the Finnish Institute of Education Ari Pokka, dozens of Ukrainian teachers and even influencers like Ukrainian language promoter Andriy Shymanovskyi and Ukrainian chef Yevhen Klopotenko.
The communication campaign took place during our country's most difficult period since independence. Despite all the challenges, the reform of the New Ukrainian School remains a priority for the Ministry of Education and Science. We are proud that our team has helped to provide high-quality coverage of the changes in the educational process.