On June 24, 2020, a briefing “New opportunities for education in communities” dedicated to the launch of the Swiss-Ukrainian Project DECIDE was held in Poltava Oblast.
The project is intended to promote the strategic development of education in Poltava Oblast. It aims to create new opportunities for effective education management in the region with participation of community. The purpose of DECIDE Project is to support education reforms and decentralization processes for development of the effective system of education management in communities.
Natalia Protasova, DECIDE Project Director, Head of NGO DOCCU, said: “Our common goal is to create at the regional level the opportunities for democratic development of education, to promote equal access to quality education for all participants in the educational process. We strive to turn schools into full-fledged, real community centers.
The experience we will gain during implementation of DECIDE Project in the region will be extended to the country as a whole”.
Iris Henseler Stierlin, leader of the team of strategic experts of DECIDE Project, Zurich University of Teacher Education (Switzerland), said: “Switzerland is a country with incredible decentralization. The decentralization means that we, the citizens, have to solve most of the problems on our own. And be responsible for it. However, decentralization is a real democracy! Each of us is responsible for our own life, for the life of our community and our country. We all create a state together! DECIDE project is aimed at awareness of responsibility. Switzerland is ready to support Ukraine towards implementing decentralization. We are ready to support introduction of the values of democracy and human rights”.
The project will be implemented by a consortium consisting of NGO DOCCU and Zurich University of Teacher Education (PH Zurich), where NGO DOCCU will take the lead. PH Zurich will provide international and Swiss expertise in developing effective education management models and will be a strategic advisory partner on democratization of education systems. Association of ATCs and other leading civil society organizations (CSOs) working in the field of decentralization and involved in implementation of education reforms will act as strategic national partners for DECIDE implementation.
