RETROSPECTIVE OF THE FORMATION OF THE EDUCATION SYSTEM IN UKRAINE

Abstract

The article is devoted to the peculiarities of formation of the education system of Ukraine. The history of the origin and development of systemic education in the Ukrainian lands since the period of ancient Russian statehood is considered in it. Emphasis was placed on a high level of development of education in Kievan Rus, where both basic and higher educational institutions took place. It is noted that in the period of the Old Russian state the education obtained in Byzantium as the centre of the then European civilization was quite prestige. A brief overview of the peculiarities of functioning of the education system  Ukraine belonged to the Grand Ducal of Lithuania, the Commonwealth of Poland, the Cossack state, the Russian Empire, the USSR, during the period of independent Ukraine was included. The analysis of trends in development of education throughout the history of Ukraine has proved the existence of pendulum movements, from elitism to egalitarian access to educational services.

Emphasis is placed on the fact that the baptism of Russia and the widespread introduction of the Cyrillic alphabet led to the transition from the elite education of priests and rulers to the egalitarian education of monastic schools. After the Mongol-Tatar invasion, only elite education remained for the children of princes and boyars. The entry of Ukrainian lands into the Grand Ducal of Lithuania led to development of brotherhood schools and collegiums, which provided access to education to broad segments of the population.

It was found that the growing dominance of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth led to further elitization of education, but in the days of the Cossacks, education again became egalitarian, universally accessible. With the entry of Ukrainian lands into the Russian state, and later into the Russian Empire, education becomes elitist even more.  In the second half of the 19th century there was an expansion of educational opportunities for the common people, but the situation worsened before 1900. At the beginning of the First World War, most men of conscription age were illiterate, but already in Soviet times, education became completely egalitarian, and basic literacy reached almost 100 %. It has been suggested that another wave of increasing the elitism of education is underway, which will soon turn into the opposite trend.