On 2 March 2023, a delegation composed of senior civil servants and experts within the Ministry of Education and Sciences in Ukraine met with representatives of the Council of Europe to discuss the organisation’s Action Plan for Ukraine (2023 – 2026) “Resilience, Recovery and Reconstruction”, and in particular its provisions on Education and Capacity Building for Education Professionals.

Mr Oleksandr Pyzhov, Director General of the Directorate for European Integration, Budgeting and Policy Coordination of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine met with Mr Matjaž Gruden, Director of Democratic Participation within the Council of Europe and administrators in charge of main activities within the Education Department.

Discussions focused on the priority of both parties to assist the Ukrainian authorities in ensuring the right to education and for strengthening an education system based on human rights and democratic values. Among the actions of the Council of Europe’s Action Plan for Ukraine directly related to education, the human rights organisation proposes to support higher education institutions as well as to facilitate the implementation of values and principles of plurilingual and intercultural education.

Also at the heart of the discussion was the future efforts towards democratic, diverse and inclusive history curricula and pedagogy that incorporate the teaching and learning of the complex history of democracy. In this respect, the Secretariat representatives welcomed the positive prospects towards Ukraine’s membership to the Observatory on History Teaching in Europe.