On Developing a Ukrainian STEM Strategy in a Wartime Context - Estonia

Taskforce Meeting Ukrainian STEM Strategy 

Requesting organisation: Estonian Research Council
Country: Estonia
City: Tallinn
Start date: November 29, 2023 

Goals:

1) To be inspired by existing STEM programmes and policies from all over Europe 
2) To network and see how Ukrainian initiatives could join currently existing EU initiatives on STEM education
3) To create ideas for a Ukrainian STEM strategy.

Summary

On the 29th and 30th of November, 2023, The EU STEM Coalition hosted a taskforce meeting in Tallinn, Estonia, on supporting STEM education in Ukraine in its wartime context. This taskforce meeting had specific focuses on developing a Ukrainian STEM policy, searching for ways to support Ukraine through currently existing European initiatives, and exchanging best practices in the field of STEM development. 

The meeting was hosted by the Estonian Research Council, and attended by seven Ukrainian representatives from such organizations as the Ministry of Education and Culture, CSR Ukraine, The Ukrainian STEM Coalition, a Ukrainian school, and STEM Girls in Ukraine.

Also in attendance were representatives from such European organizations as The Dutch National STEM Platform, LUMA Centre Finland, VLAIO in Belgium, ASTRA in Norway, Óbuda University in Hungary, and the University of Melbourne in Australia.

Meeting documenst: TM11 Ukraine - Google Drive

To see the presentation from the EU STEM Coalition which was used to structure this event, please click here.

Description:

Day 1, November 29th

The meeting began with an introduction to its goals by Sytske Valk, from the EU STEM Coalition. She explained how taskforce meetings generally work for the EU STEM Coalition, as well as some of the specific expectations for this one. 

Next, Daria Gapirova from STEM Girls gave a presentation on the current state of STEM education in Ukraine. In her presentation, she explained that, despite the chaos of war, Ukraine was still hard at work trying to develop its STEM infrastructure. One example of this is the opening of STEM laboratories for Ukrainian schools. Over 100 such centers have been opened. However being such a large country, Daria said this number was still not nearly sufficient. But with the support of such groups as google and the Japanese government, Ukraine is still doing its best to increase these numbers. 

Another activity which is being focused on in the field of STEM in Ukraine is teacher training. Teachers are under paid in Ukraine, and rarely have access to training opportunities. Furthermore, Daria noted that it is often the case that many teachers hold an outdated view on gender, meaning that it is commonly believed that STEM subjects are for boys, and not for girls. For these reasons, STEM platforms in Ukraine are investigating ways of both providing more access to teacher training, as well as improving upon the content. 

The use of more public private cooperation is also an important issue being faced in Ukrainian STEM education. This issue has become all the more difficult to address, given that most of Ukrainian industry is so focused on supporting the war effort. To see this presentation, click here.

After Daria spoke, she gave the floor to Natalia Lymonova from GIOS, a startup company which is in the Ukrainian STEM Coalition. Generally, GIOS focuses on improving critical thinking among children, and training among teachers. To do this, they engage in such activities as hosting events for children, including refugee children specifically, and conducting teacher trainings. 

The next presentation was by a representative of the Estonian Research Counsel. The first topic which was covered in this presentation was that of Science Europe; a program which has 80 million euros a year to support Ukrainian researchers during the war. This program was uniquely formed to support Ukrainians during these difficult times, and is a joint cooperation between 88 different originations. The presentation also touched upon Estonia’s unique national STEM strategy, of which the Estonian Research Counsel is the primary  anifestation. As such, they do a great deal of work to popularize STEM in Estonia. One of the most notable manifestations of this is Rocket 69, a TV show in which students compete to solve science-based challenges.

This project is so successful, that Luxemburg has decided to adopt it as well. The next speaker was Brigid Freeman, from University of Melbourne in Australia. Brigid by explaining that the urgency to develop STEM is something which only comes about in an emergency. Lately, Covid has been this urgency. Brigid then demonstrated a collection of data pertaining to education results in Europe, so as to orientate everyone, and act as a reference for the rest of her presentation.

Brigid pointed out some of the problems being shown in the data, such as a decline in math and science results, as well as a poorer performance in rural areas as compared to urban. She then explained how and why policy can be used to help solve such problems, by using such approaches as policy sharing. Brigid also touched upon how to scaffold policy, with a particular focus on the Ukrainian context. To see Brigid’s presentation, click here.

To read the full report of this 2-day Taskforce meeting, including presentations; click here