The All-Ukrainian Gymnasium Retreat ‘The Kryvyi Rih Spirit: Iron Will and the Energy of Change’ took place in Kryvyi Rih, bringing together educators and administrators from the Polaris Programme’s partner hromadas across Ukraine.
Participants included representatives from the hromadas of Kryvyi Rih, Lubny, Novoozhytske, Obukhiv, Teofipol, Kozelets and Malovyskiv. The event was organised by Polaris Programme in partnership with the Ukrainian Centre for Educational Quality Assessment, the Office for the Implementation of the New Ukrainian School at the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, and the Department of Education and Science of the Kryvyi Rih City Council Executive Committee.
The main theme of the retreat was the role of gymnasiums in the modern education network and preparing hromadas for the reform of specialized secondary schools. Discussions focused not only on regulatory changes, but also on how to build an effective network of educational institutions in practice, support children in choosing their future path, and ensure the quality of education in wartime conditions.
Kryvyi Rih has proved to be a very telling case study for this practical platform. The city has already established a network of lyceums and gymnasiums and continues to improve it. Today, 21 lyceums and 98 gymnasiums work here.
Tetiana Kripak, Director of the Department of Education and Science at the Kryvyi Rih City Council Executive Committee, noted that the retreat is intended to show hromadas how Kryvyi Rih is implementing educational transformation in practice.
Oleksandr Vilkul, Head of the City Defence Council, also wrote on Facebook about the importance of such an exchange of experiences. According to him, ‘the aim of the event was to use real-life examples to show how the city has implemented educational reform and what results can be achieved when there is a clear strategy and a team working on it every day’. He also noted that ‘the gymnasiums in Kryvyi Rih, which are already operating without a senior school, have not lost pupils; on the contrary, they have become more in demand’.
The retreat included a strategic panel discussion, a practical intensive session in the form of case studies, and a final reflection session. Participants explored topics such as the mental health of the educational community, digital transformation as a crisis-response solution, and dynamic partnerships as a key factor in developing a new educational ecosystem.
The format allowed participants not only to exchange experiences but also to see how the reform is working in specific hromadas – with results, figures and real-life examples.
”The gymnasium plays a key role in the education system, driving real change and laying the foundations for further specialised education. It is at this level that the quality of educational outcomes is established. Without a strong gymnasium, an effective specialised school and a sustainable educational network in the hromadas are impossible. The Polaris programme provides partner hromadas with the impetus for transformation and supports educational management in administrative processes on the path to quality education,” said Tetiana Ozerova, an expert with the Polaris programme.
For Polaris programme, organising this retreat is a continuation of its systematic work with hromadas in the field of education on local and regional levels: from supporting strategic decisions to jointly developing practical models for transforming the education network.
