In mid-February, the education area of the Polaris Programme conducted a series of field visits and working meetings across different regions of Ukraine. The events brought together hromadas, education managers, teachers, parents and students to address key issues of the upper secondary school reform, inter-municipal cooperation and the development of capable academic lyceums.
“Lyceum Mega Tour” in Lubny – choosing an educational pathway without borders
On 10 February, the city of Lubny (Poltava oblast) hosted the inter-municipal event Lyceum Mega Tour, organised within the cooperation between the Lubny and Novoorzhytsia hromadas. The event gathered more than 500 participants – Grade 9 students, parents, teachers and education managers from eight hub schools and 15 gymnasiums.
The core idea of the Mega Tour was to create a safe, open and well-informed space for choosing an educational pathway after lower secondary school. Students and parents were given the opportunity not only to hear about educational offers, but to immerse themselves in the real life of two academic lyceums – the Yevropeiskyi Lyceum and the Brothers Shemet Lyceum.
The event moderator, education expert Artem Horobets, emphasised that the Mega Tour goes far beyond a traditional open day:
“The Lyceum Mega Tour is a platform for awareness, observation, analysis, comparison and communication, and a real opportunity to immerse oneself in the educational process and environment of two lyceums in Lubny.”
The programme was designed as a structured immersion journey. Presentation battles in the PechaKucha format allowed lyceums to showcase their profiles and educational strengths in a concise and dynamic way. Interactive tours of the “points of strength” opened access to laboratories, media centres, sports halls and creative spaces. Workshops – ranging from robotics and 3D modelling to business games, media production and artistic practices – enabled students to test their interests and abilities.
An important element was the active involvement of lyceum students themselves – as guides, speakers and moderators of dialogue with guests. This not only increased trust in the institutions, but also demonstrated a high level of student agency and a well-established educational culture. The overall atmosphere – from scientific experiments to informal conversations over tea – helped ease the tension and fears that often accompany decisions about further education.
As a result, the Lyceum Mega Tour became a next-generation career guidance tool – based not on pressure or promotion, but on informed choice and partnership between hromadas.
Dialogue with parents and the university: upper secondary school as a shared responsibility
On 11 February, the educational dialogue continued at the premises of the State Institution Luhansk Taras Shevchenko National University. A meeting was held involving the leadership of the Lubny city territorial hromada, education management representatives and parent leaders from hub schools.
The focus of the discussion was the choice of educational pathways for Grade 9 graduates in the context of implementing the upper secondary school reform. The conversation was challenging but constructive: participants agreed to jointly seek alternative solutions by combining the opportunities offered by academic lyceums and institutions of professional pre-higher education.
In the second part of the meeting, directors of vocational colleges and the regional vocational education centre presented educational programmes that allow students to acquire a modern profession while completing full general secondary education. The event concluded with agreements on further cooperation, career guidance activities and study visits for students and parents.
Berezhany: trust as the foundation of complex management decisions
Also on 11 February, experts from the education area of the Polaris programme worked in the Berezhany city territorial hromada (Ternopil oblast). Oleh Fasolia, Lead of the Education Area of Polaris, and education expert Olena Rusnachenko held a working meeting with school principals and the hromada’s education management team.
The discussion focused on optimising the network of educational institutions, aligning management decisions on enrolment at different education levels, and the final stage of implementing the upper secondary school reform. Trust between all stakeholders emerged as the key theme.
“The success of any endeavour depends on trust among participants. Building a new architecture of the education network is an extremely complex process, and without unconditional trust it is impossible,”
emphasised Oleh Fasolia.
First Lyceum Gatherings in Stryi – a concentration of successful practices
On 12 February, Stryi (Lviv oblast) hosted the First Lyceum Gatherings – an event that brought together teams of educators from eight hromadas across different regions of Ukraine. The gathering took place at the Stryi Lyceum named after Hero of Ukraine Andrii Korchak and was dedicated to sharing real management experience in implementing the upper secondary school reform.
The distinctive feature of the gathering was the diversity of starting positions among participants: hromadas that have been operating a single academic lyceum for several years met with those in a pre-pilot phase and those only beginning the journey towards establishing a modern upper secondary school. This diversity enabled an open discussion not only about successes, but also about mistakes and difficult management decisions.
The moderator of the gathering, Polaris education expert Serhii Diatlenko, set the tone for a “live conversation” format – without formal speeches or template presentations. The focus was on practices that can be scaled up: shaping learning profiles, managing student motivation, developing student self-governance, organising the educational process, and the role of the lyceum head as a leader of change.
Oleh Fasolia highlighted the value of this format:
“The First Lyceum Gatherings made it possible to have a substantive discussion about implementing the upper secondary school reform – achievements, challenges, first results and mistakes made. Each participant received a body of insights that encourages reflection and action.”
A separate focus was an open conversation with lyceum students – about their motivation to learn, expectations of teachers and vision of their own future. Equally valuable was communication with teachers and the lyceum administration, which allowed participants to see the reform “from the inside” – through everyday management and pedagogical practice.
Participants did not simply listen – they recorded ideas, compared approaches and asked difficult questions. At the same time, the key takeaway was a shared understanding: real impact will only emerge when each hromada is able to implement at least part of what it has seen, adapted to its own context.
Despite the variety of formats – from large-scale career guidance events to closed management meetings – all visits were united by the common working logic of the Polaris programme. This logic combines live dialogue, practical tools and responsible management decisions developed together with hromadas. It is precisely this approach that makes it possible not only to implement the upper secondary school reform, but also to build trust – without which sustainable educational change is impossible.
