It teaches everyone that theft and deception are normal, acceptable, acceptable.
Why is this important?
I would say that the problem has two dimensions:
budget expenditures: our state guarantees surcharges for the degree; and, well, after the abolition of the degree, it would be worth demanding a refund of the funds that the state had paid as surcharges for the degree. ethical dimension: plagiarism is an outright mockery of education and science. It is necessary to fight for this, because plagiarism undermines the trust of one person in the whole system, including other scientists who conduct honest research. This undermines and devalues the system of higher education and science in general. It teaches everyone that theft and deception are normal, acceptable, acceptable. This puts the whole society in a gray area, where there is no clear distinction, where – good, and where – evil. And on such a basis it is impossible to build a new society based on rules, mutual respect and fair competition.
Unfortunately, in Ukraine it is often necessary to wait a long time for justice to be established – but it is possible. As Martin Luther King wrote, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it leans toward righteousness.”
Thank you to everyone involved in this fight!
The original
plagiarismblogsInna Sovsun
05/13/2020
Teachers expect a slight increase in salaries, and for scientists everything will remain almost unchanged |
I. Sovsun: the adopted budget will bring different news
Author: Inna Sovsun, People’s Deputy of Ukraine.
The adopted budget for next year will bring both good and disappointing news to educators. School teachers are expected to receive a slight increase in salaries, for scientists everything will remain almost unchanged, and the distribution of funds to universities will be even less transparent than before.
Schools
What has changed compared to the first version of the budget? Expenditures on education increased by UAH 6 billion. First of all, through an additional UAH 3.75 billion in subventions to improve the social protection of certain categories of secondary school teachers. This money will go to one-time payments to young teachers with up to 10 years of experience and to recalculate the subvention according to the number of students at the beginning of this, not the last school year. This recalculation means that communities with more children, especially Kyiv and regional centers, will receive more money, while those with fewer children will receive less.
The government has also added UAH 1.5 billion to the budget to create a modern learning environment in basic schools. A necessary step is to start addressing the educational gap between children from large cities and the rest of the country. But the question is whether it is enough.
Science
In the second version of the budget, the program to support priority areas of research in higher education has increased 4 times – up to 400 million. Vocational education also added a little money – from UAH 100 million to UAH 259 million increased funding for training centers modern vocational education.
Spending on science before the second reading, unfortunately, has not increased – the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine will receive 3.95 billion UAH. However, some of the branch academies were given money. The National Academy of Medical Sciences still received an additional UAH 100 million, and the Academy of Legal Sciences received UAH 10 million.
Overall, spending on science will be 0.16% of GDP, which is unacceptably low.
Higher Education
Some positive changes have been proposed in higher education: the creation of a separate program – the Higher Education Development Fund. This is exactly the idea proposed by Golos deputies in their bill on higher education funding reform. This solution could help with the problem of allocating funds – to make it transparent and clear.
However, the amount of funds allocated for capital expenditures was halved compared to 2019. That’s why I filed an amendment – to increase expenditures on this Fund. This amendment was not adopted by the Budget Committee. Instead, it was suggested that the Fund’s funds be distributed to members of the Budget Committee. This decision creates risks of manual control and makes the distribution of money even more politicized.
The original
Inna Sovsunblogsteachers’ salarieseducation financing
11/14/2019
None of the 9 ministries participating in the public administration reform program is reducing the number of directorates |
I. Sovsun: Sergei Shkarlet is very nostalgic for Tabachnik’s time
Author: Inna Sovsun, People’s Deputy of Ukraine, member of the faction of the political party “Voice”.
How many reforms can undermine the so-called at. Minister of Education Scarlett? Thought only education and science reforms? Civil service reform is next.
Do you know the easiest way to get rid of “uncomfortable” employees of the ministry? Eliminate their positions. I think everyone who has gone through the civil service has this experience. Let me tell you more – once at the beginning of my work in the Ministry of Education, I legit lab report writing service fired the head of the Department of International Relations, who did not speak English.
Yes, then after Tabachnyk the Ministry of Education and Science needed a significant cleanup. At that time I really wanted to recruit new, cool people to the team, but it was actually impossible. Because the entrance salary for the chief specialist was something 3-4 thousand hryvnias.
Such opportunities appeared at the time when I left the Ministry of Education, after 2016 – with the launch of civil service reform. Then they began to create separate directorates within the ministries, which went to work high-class specialists from outside – for a decent salary.
There was a strict selection for each position, the competition reached 40-60 people per place. A lot of effort has been put into training the experts who won the competitions, and the salaries of new specialists are paid largely from EU funds. Some of them are people who used to work in various ministries and are now able to get a quality career jump (and salary), but a little more than half – people from outside.
Despite their different backgrounds, they all had one thing in common – a sincere desire to inevitably change society. And yet – a clear awareness of their own dignity and the ability to argue their own opinion.
Obviously, this is not what suited the so-called at. Minister of Education Serhiy Shkarlet, who decided to suddenly reduce the number of directorates and reform specialists. Thus, today there are 6 directorates in the Ministry of Education and Science, which employ 93 specialists in reform.
Instead, Scarlett is proposing to reduce the number of directorates from six to four, reducing the number of state experts from 93 to 50, or almost half. To this end, the Directorate of Higher Education will be merged with the Directorate of Vocational Education. And this is against the background of talk about the need to pay special attention to vocational education! The Directorate of School Education will be merged with the Directorate of Preschool, Out-of-School and Inclusive Education. No comments.
By the way, there will be more positions of chief specialists. Explain the logic to me: why reduce positions where people get more, and instead produce positions where people get less?
The European Union has already warned Ukraine against rolling back reforms. The letter of the Delegation of Ukraine to the EU was published by Olena Panych, a former state expert of the Directorate of Higher Education at the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine. According to the European Commission, the reduction of directorates threatens to disrupt the reforms of vocational education, higher education, will reduce the ministry’s ability to develop and implement educational policy and international projects, in particular with the EU.
This will reduce the quality of management decisions, strike at the transparency of procedures in education and science, threaten dishonesty and decline in the quality of education in Ukraine as a whole. As well as the abolition of the program to support civil service reform.
The letter also reminds that now the Ministry of Education has more than 40% of vacant positions of experts and heads of expert groups, instead of holding competitions for them, the positions are simply reduced.
None of the 9 ministries that are also participating in the public administration reform program is reducing the number of directorates.
The so-called at. The Minister said that the quoted passages from the letter from the EU Delegation were taken out of context. Oh, this long-suffering context again! Of course, I understand that Serhiy Shkarlet is very nostalgic for Tabachnyk’s time, when there were no competitions, and it was possible to “solve” warm positions for his own. But this is no reason to violate Ukraine’s obligations and disrupt the provision of EU macro-financial assistance reserved for Ukraine.
The original
blogsInna Sovsun
11/24/2020
Attempts to regulate and define everything at the level of laws contradict the idea of university autonomy |
Inna Sovsun: how to break this vicious circle? …
Author: Inna Sovsun, People’s Deputy of Ukraine.
… I am currently sitting at a meeting of the Committee on Education, Science and Innovation. The bill on including museums in the list of structural subdivisions of universities in the law on higher education is being discussed, and the director and employees of museums should be given the status of scientific and pedagogical workers.
I try to imagine that in the States, the Senate would consider enshrining in law a complete list of departments that may operate in universities….
All these attempts to regulate and define absolutely everything at the level of laws are a kind of Soviet legacy, which categorically contradicts the idea of university autonomy (and common sense).
And what is interesting is not only / not so much the initiative of lawmakers, it is also the desire of universities – which constantly demand that everything be written in the law.
The question is – how to break this vicious circle? …
The original
Inna Sovsunblogsuniversities of Ukraine
02/12/2020
In Ukraine, the mechanism for bringing to justice for academic dishonesty does not work |
I. Sovsun: Scarlett is not going to resign
Author: Inna Sovsun, People’s Deputy of Ukraine from the Voice faction, Deputy Chairman of the Voice Party. First Deputy Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine (2014-2016).
When discussing my bill banning plagiarists from holding certain positions, critics of the committee said: “Why do we need a bill? It is necessary that, as in Europe, plagiarists themselves should resign if plagiarism is confirmed.”
Today we are convinced that we need to grow a little more in Europe. Because despite the conclusion of the Ethics Committee NAME – Scarlet is not going to resign.