CC BY
7PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
NEW EDUCATIONAL INNOVATIVE ASPECTS OF DECENTRALIZATION OF MANAGEMENT IN EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS
1Yana Melnyk 2Tetiana Mazur
Assistant Professor of Public Management and
Administration Department, Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukrainian State Employment Service Training Institute 2Master ofpublic administration, master of art, University of North London
DOI: https://doi.org/10.31435/rsglobal_ws/30082018/6057
ARTICLE INFO
Received: 09 July 2018 Accepted: 20 August 2018 Published: 30 August 2018
KEYWORDS
decentralization, united territorial communities, educational reformations, educational innovations.
ABSTRACT
This paper argues that today, while building democratic, social state, the implementation of the reform of the administrative-territorial system and the system of local self-government (decentralization) is one of the key tasks of the Ukrainian authorities. Considering that education is one of the largest sectors of public services used by the population, ranging from the level of the individual community, its reformation becomes a priority among other reforms in Ukraine.
Citation: Yana Melnyk, Tetiana Mazur. (2018) New Educational Innovative Aspects of Decentralization of Management in Educational Institutions. World Science. 8(36), Vol.1. doi: 10.31435/rsglobal_ws/30082018/6057
Copyright: © 2018 Yana Melnyk, Tetiana Mazur. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Introduction. The decentralized system of education functions through cooperation and coordination of the activities of many independent institutions, each of them has a legally defined scope of autonomy. The main problem of the decentralization process is that there are no clear rules so far, since reform is ahead of legislative creation. At present, the process is regulated by the Laws of Ukraine "On voluntary association of territorial communities" and "On cooperation of territorial communities", as well as the decree of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine "On Approval of the Methodology for the Formation of Capable Territorial Communities".
It should be noted that the primary changes should take place in the management and financing of educational institutions, which will result in progressive changes in the educational process.
At present, the system of management of secondary education is constructed in such a way that any school in a village, settlement or even city of region significance is financed at the expense of the district budget. The conditionally positive benefits of such a system include the presence of a single control centre, the possibility of coordinating the work of institutions in the area of a certain region, the possibility of operational rotation of staff between institutions or redistribution of budget financing in cases when there are unforeseen circumstances that require urgent financial provision. In the latter case, the search for additional resources is usually carried out at the expense of those educational institutions that, for one reason or another, were able to save some of the budget funds allocated to their maintenance. It should be noted that under such conditions, subjective factors may potentially exist in the distribution of funds between institutions of
education within the region, resulting in the fact that educational institutions with the same "parameters" may receive different financial resources.
According to government forecasts, these and many other issues need to be addressed after the completion of the decentralization reform, when full management of schools will be transferred to the level of communities as the primary and basic unit of local self-government. Under such conditions, the principle of subsidiarity, which provides the provision of public services for the body that is closest to the citizen, the consumer of such services, must be fully implemented.
Considering the benefits of reform, let's pay attention to the problems that arise or may arise in the future. Today there are a number of significant problems in the newly formed united communities regarding the functioning of educational institutions. First and foremost, it is necessary to provide the structural divisions of executive bodies of the united communities with qualified specialists-educators. Particularly acute problem of shortage of experienced and professional specialists is at the level of management personnel, whose decisions determine how the sector will function, how and whether the proper working conditions of teachers will be ensured, how effectively the educational process and many other important issues will be organized. Therefore, the formation of a quality managerial unit in the structure of the executive staff of the united community that will be concerned with education, should be considered as a problem that requires a first-rate solution.
As noted, the financial support of the branch is an important factor in the provision of educational services. With the introduction of amendments to the Budget Code of Ukraine in December 2014, state approaches to funding general education institutions changed dramatically. School financing is due to subventions that are transferred to the budget of the UTC from the state budget of Ukraine twice a month until the 10th and 25th of the month. Education subventions are calculated on the number of students, considering a number of coefficients, including small-scale schools, considering wage indices and material support of the educational process. Subventions may also be directed towards capital expenditures if current expenditures are secured and there will be no debt for protected items. The remainder of the provided subvention at the end of the fiscal year will remain in schools.
In other words, the state allocates certain funds (subventions) to local budgets, which should be used only for a certain purpose. Current normative documents stipulate that educational subventions may be used for payment of current expenditures of general educational institutions. We emphasize that the educational subvention is allowed only for current expenditures; there are no capital expenditures in general. The exception is the norm of the Budget Code, which allows the balance of funds for an educational subvention at the end of the budget period to be used in the next budget period for updating the material and technical base of educational institutions.
It should be noted that the change of approaches to determining the amount of budget financing of education has not solved the main problem - a catastrophic lack of funds to ensure the normal functioning of the industry, not to mention the development of the material base or the introduction of modern teaching methods. A detailed analysis has shown that there is only a change in the form, but, in essence, the approach to allocating budget funding to local budgets for the maintenance of educational institutions has not changed.
The issue of integrating the united territorial communities into the national system of education as separate independent entities providing educational services to citizens is very important. Until recently, the system of bodies and educational institutions did not include in their structures such entities as united communities. It was constructed differently considering that the provision of education is the prerogative of the executive branch of government, where there are established norms, directives, methodologies and methods with a clear hierarchy and subordination of administrative bodies.
One of the significant managerial powers gained by the local self-government bodies of UTC is the right and opportunity to form their own and effective system of providing educational services to the population of their community, considering the social significance of the education sector and the dominant volume of the expenditure part of the budget of the UTC for its maintenance.
Creation of united territorial communities in rural areas, for the first time in the new history of public administration in Ukraine, has created conditions where all management and financial powers are concentrated in a single body of local self-government. Thus, there was a real opportunity to optimize the networks of the General Educational Institutions (GEI) to overcome the many problems that have accumulated in the education sector due to the large number of low-complex (and at the same time high-cost) schools in rural regions of Ukraine. The solution of the problem of rational spending of budget funds on the maintenance of community schools should not discourage local authorities from understanding that the quality of education is one of the main criteria for the management of the network of educational establishments of UTC.
Significant legal authority regarding the management of the network of educational institutions, its optimization, and enhancement of the quality of educational services on their basis is the main property of education authority's management in the UTC, which distinguishes them from the content of education management in the structure of the DGA. This means that the creation of a UTC education authority should be a quality process based on a thorough analysis of its functions and powers.
Depending on the situation with the number of schools in preschool and out-of-school establishments, their geographical location, the UTC education management system may have different structural forms and corresponding names (management, divisions, sectors, etc.), and staffing. On the other hand, the activity of the education system is a continuous, organizational and methodically complex process that relates to the provision of educational services for a large number of people and, in this case, should be in line with state policy and educational standards. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the need to preserve a certain vertical in the performance of the educational powers and tasks of the existing and established educational management bodies (Ministry -educational administration bodies of regional state administrations - education management bodies of district, city (district in cities), education management bodies of united territorial communities -schools). Also, an important element of creating an effective system of management of educational institutions at UTC is the maximum delegation of administrative and teaching-methodological powers to the level of the educational process (educational establishments), coupled with proper management within the institution itself and ensuring the quality of education.
This kind of decentralization of the UTC education system will also prevent the formation of inefficient and costly UTC budgets. The effectiveness of the activity of the education management body (including the implementation of the network optimization of the network) will depend on how much it will be occupied with the performance of functions directly related to the quality of educational services.
An important element of creating an effective system of administrative services for the education of the united territorial communities is the maximum delegation of administrative and teaching-methodological powers to the level of the educational process (educational establishments), in conjunction with proper management within the institution itself and ensuring the quality of education.
However, the legal uncertainty of many issues is one of the main obstacles to quick and effective change both in the overall process of decentralization and in a separate area of education. Therefore, an urgent solution requires the problem of developing and implementing necessary legislative and regulatory acts that would regulate all areas of the functioning of education in conditions of decentralization. The process of reformation should be managed by the state authorities, and in the future the state should play a key role in organizing the education system, coordinating the activities of the relevant local authorities, and establishing certain norms, requirements and standards in secondary education. It is important to prevent excessive liberalization precisely in the line of school education, because this is the place where the foundations of the future intellectual potential of the state are laid and the human capital is formed, which is the basis for the successful development of the modern state.
The transformational processes taking place in the Ukrainian society require from the executive and local self-government officials not only an understanding of the modern approach to the activities of social institutions, but the ability to rethink the work done, to implement and, more importantly, to produce new approaches to governance. Educational reformations should be aimed at increasing managerial professionalism, focusing on the stabilization of social institutions.
Educational innovations, as a rule, are represented by their technologies, that is, a set of forms, methods and means of teaching, education and management, united by the sole purpose and recognized by the educational community. An important aspect is that innovative approaches in education preserve all the components of traditional education, enriching them with new content, techniques, providing a new technical expression.
The introduction of the concept of civil servants' innovative training is based on extensive research on innovation, which has been developed in recent years in domestic and foreign pedagogical science.
The innovation process must begin with the formation of innovative thinking, which is laid out during an education in an educational institution and continues to be transformed directly into the intellectual asset of an organization or institution.
The experience of developed European countries shows that reforming the educational sphere and bringing it to a higher level is an important factor in economic growth. In the Strategy of the State Personnel Policy of Ukraine for 2012-2020, the purpose of which is to provide all the spheres of life of the state with skilled personnel necessary for the realization of national interests in the context of Ukraine's development as a democratic, social state with a developed market economy, it is stated that the Ukrainian economy as a whole and Knowledge economy in particular faced a number of issues:
- the need for interconnection between the market of educational services and the labor market;
- harmonization of the volume and quality of vocational education and training in accordance with the needs of the employer;
- increasing of the role of social partners, business entities in implementing a life-long learning strategy;
- the introduction of a comprehensive approach to training and advanced training, the assessment of learning outcomes.
This requires the improvement of both the education system as a whole and the improvement of the quality of training of local self-government officials who directly or indirectly manage it, the use of innovative technologies and distance learning, which promotes the professionalisation and individualization of the personnel and allows considering the needs for active communication within the pedagogical interrelations both in the "vertical" and in the "horizontal".
Conclusions. Consequently, the success of any reform depends on its legitimization and perception by ordinary citizens, since the introduction of any changes by administrative methods that will not be recognized in society can lead to opposition, which, in turn, will make it impossible to achieve the tasks envisaged by the reform. Therefore, it is important to have a permanent information support for the reform of education: clarification of the main provisions, expected results and stages of reform.
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