By Andreas Schleicher, OECD Director for Education and Skills
When we see large numbers of teachers gathering, it’s often to claim better salaries and improved working conditions. In Ukraine, the salaries of experienced teachers are less than one fifth of their German counterparts, even after adjusting for purchasing power parities. So, you would expect teacher pay to be a major topic of discussion when Ukrainian teachers get together at an event. But at the Osvitoria “Teachers of the Future” Festival in Lviv last month, teacher pay was only occasionally mentioned. Despite poor pay and the extremely testing context of Russia’s war of aggression, teachers at the festival focused their discussions on the future and how teachers can help young Ukrainians find a sense of purpose amidst all the destruction.
I joined the 2,300 teachers and school leaders attending and witnessed a true celebration of resilience, innovation and vision. Some of the teachers attending travelled 30 hours to get to the venue, many had to pay for their travel, and all of them used their vacation days to join colleagues in person. I frequently took part in debates and listened in to conversations about how to help students find and leverage their talents, and to help them understand what Ukraine needs from them, now and in the future.
The festival opened with the film Timestamp (TIMESTAMP by Kateryna Gornostai), which powerfully conveys how the war is affecting the daily lives of students and teachers. It shows how schools provide a lifeline to normalcy in these difficult times, both on and off the frontline, and how day-to-day life is intertwined with constant danger.
What makes the images of destroyed school buildings so shocking is that schools are precisely the places where the future of Ukraine is being built. Investing into the schooling infrastructure is a formidable response to this destruction, and it is amazing to see much progress on that front. But it’s even more important to have a clear vision about what future those schools will bring to life, and this is what this festival was about.
Russia started this war because Ukraine was striving for a different society, a different economy and a different democracy. Ukraine’s Minister of Education and Science Oksen Lisovyi told me at the festival that Ukraine’s military victory is impossible without fundamentally transforming their education system. Whatever successes are achieved at the frontline, the battle for the future is also being fought in Ukraine’s classrooms. Participants at the festival discussed what knowledge, skills and values could fuel and sustain the future society and democracy the country was striving for. And they explored how to give students greater ownership over what and how they learn to replace the current one-size-fits-all system; as well as how to put capabilities like creativity, entrepreneurship, ethical integrity and civic engagement at the core of Ukraine’s education system.
In many ways, the festival highlights how much the rest of the world can learn from Ukraine in not just building back better, but building forward differently. It seems real change is often born in deep crisis.
The most obvious success of Ukraine is digitalisation: According to OECD’s PISA assessment, Ukraine now ranks first in digital intensity in classrooms among all PISA countries – not by choice but because the war has accelerated the digital transformation at a pace no other country has seen. That is mirrored in the quality of educational Apps, like MRIIA or POVIR, which have moved far beyond the delivery of educational content. Ukrainian teachers told me they do not see AI as a replacement for their jobs, but as a means to create more space for what educators do best – developing the kind of durable skills in learners that cannot be learned on the internet or from books.
But equally impressive is the transformation of the education workforce. Many teachers in Ukraine have evolved from instructors to also becoming great coaches, mentors, social workers and creative designers of innovative learning environments. They see what kind of support their students need and are doing whatever it takes to provide it, without waiting for the next training session. Think about this: according to OECD’s PISA assessment, students in Ukraine rank higher than the OECD average in emotional resilience and in the quality of social relationships. And in the middle of this war, Ukrainian students, on average, feel safer in their schools than American students feel in theirs. Perhaps that’s because a sense of safety isn’t just about physical infrastructure but about having teachers who know who their students are, who care who their students become and who accompany them one by one on their journey to the future.
Despite the profound difficulties of teaching during wartime, Ukrainian teachers continue to lead with courage and commitment. I pay tribute to them. Their energy and determination are infectious and were on full display throughout the festival. The best thing we can do now is help them succeed.
See more on our coverage of Ukraine’s education reforms:
