In December, the state pilot policy ‘Money Follows the Teacher’ will be launched. Although this does not constitute a local self-government reform, it will directly affect every community. A community is strong not only because of its budget and roads, but first and foremost because of its people.

The new approach will see the state directly funding the professional development of teachers for the first time. Each teacher, principal or deputy principal will receive UAH 1,500 in their own virtual account to spend on professional development courses of their choice.

This is about more than just a technical change. It is a signal that the state trusts and recognises the right of specialists to choose how to develop.

For communities, this means that:

• schools will have motivated teachers who have chosen training that their students really need, rather than simply ‘improving their qualifications’;
• local education will become more flexible, able to respond quickly to new challenges, from providing psychological support for children to setting up specialised schools;
• the community will be able to see what the state is investing in and reinforce this support with its own resources.

Registration for the Vector platform will open in December. One hundred thousand educators, including teachers, principals and deputy principals from 7th–9th grades of the New Ukrainian School, as well as the pilot 10th grades of senior school, will be invited to participate in the pilot.

This policy is being implemented by the Ministry of Education and Science in partnership with the World Bank as part of the ‘Lifting Education Access and Resilience in Times of Need’ (LEARN) programme.

Read more on the Vector platform.