On March 21, 2024, the Eurydice Network Facebook page (EurydiceEU) hosted an online event called Eurydice Talk. The event was dedicated to this year’s expansion of the Network to include Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova. Andrii Lytvynchuk, Acting Director of the SSI “Institute of Educational Analytics”, Senior Researcher with a Ph.D. in Economics, represented Ukraine as the national representative of the Eurydice Network.
The event was moderated by Anna Maria Volpe, a Communications Advisor at the European Commission’s Education, Culture, and Audiovisual Executive Agency (EACEA).
Representatives from Eurydice’s National Units in Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova had an excellent opportunity to share their experiences and discuss further cooperation. The focus was on fostering a more robust, inclusive, and innovative educational landscape.
During his speech, Andrii Lytvynchuk emphasised Ukraine’s national significance in joining the Eurydice network, especially during challenging times marked by the ongoing large-scale war with russia aggressor. He highlighted that Ukraine’s status as an EU candidate in 2022 elevated EU-Ukraine relations. This positioned Ukraine’s membership in the Eurydice Network as a natural extension of fruitful cooperation, particularly in education. This partnership facilitates collaboration with leading experts from both the EU and beyond, fostering knowledge exchange and enhancing the global visibility of Ukraine’s educational system.
With Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova now included, the Eurydice Network has expanded to 43 National Units, providing more opportunities to share experiences and best practices in education policy.
Andrii Lytvynchuk took the opportunity to express his gratitude to the Eurydice team for preparing reports on Ukrainian refugee children and students in Europe. The reports, titled Supporting refugee learners from Ukraine in schools in Europe and Supporting refugee learners from Ukraine in higher education in Europe 2022, were published in June 2022 and are available on the Network’s website. He highlighted the significance of gathering such information and emphasised Ukraine’s direct involvement in comparable monitoring studies in the future.
The Eurydice Talk also covered priority directions for the development of educational policy in the participating countries. Unfortunately, the education sector in Ukraine is facing new challenges due to the ongoing war. Therefore, current priority measures aim to create the safest possible conditions for Ukrainian children to pursue their studies. Additionally, the Ukrainian government’s education agenda includes transitioning to offline learning in regions where the security situation allows; continuing the NUS school reform; adapting vocational education to the needs of the labour market during and after the war; changing approaches to budget financing of higher education, and promoting the use of the English language.
In conclusion, Peter Birch, Head of Studies and Analysis at EACEA, summarised the discussion and emphasised the significance of Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova working together within the Eurydice Network.