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The state policy in Ukraine in the field of education covers
all levels of the education - primary, secondary (obligatory), vocational
and higher education.
According to the article 53 of the Constitution of Ukraine the
State guarantees the accessibility and free primary, secondary, vocational
and higher education in the public and municipal educational institutions;
development of the primary, secondary, non-school, vocational, higher and
postgraduate education, different types of training; grants public
scholarships and privileges for the pupils and students. The
financing of the primary and secondary education mainly relates to the
local budget expenditures. But at the same time only some Public Programs
and measures of the abovementioned educational levels are financed from the
State Budget.
For the last five years the expenditures on education in
Ukraine reach annually about 6 percent of the GDP. According to the Law of
Ukraine "On the State Budget of Ukraine for 2008" funds
equivalent to 3 billion Euro are provided for the rendering services on
obtaining primary, secondary, vocational, higher, non-school and
postgraduate education. This amounts 9 percent from the total amount of
Ukrainian State Budget expenditures.
The social importance of realizing one of the main State
function which is ensuring the sufficient level of the education for the
young growing generation and training of the highly educated specialists
that is considered as the foundation of the state development in all
spheres (economic, social, cultural and scientific). Taking into account
aforesaid as well as the amount of the budgetary funds assigned annually
for this function the Accounting Chamber of Ukraine as the constitutional
independent Supreme Audit Institution in Ukraine executes the
permanent control over the funds expenditures on this purposes mainly in respect
to effectiveness, economy and legality.
The Accounting Chamber of Ukraine while conducting performance
audit in the field of education at the same time performs financial audit,
compliance audit as well as researches problems of the administrative activity,
audit object internal control organization and in this field as a whole,
social effects of the administration decision-making.
The Annual Collegium Working Plan foresees conducting control
and analytical measures on different themes in the field of education,
permanent monitoring and control over the implementation of the ACU
proposals and recommendations on audit findings conducted earlier.
Over the last years Accounting Chamber has conducted the
number of audits related to the State Budget funds utilization in the field
of education.
As the result of performance of the Audit on the Provision
of Educational Institutions with the Manuals we have come to conclusion
that the acting system established by the Ministry of Education and Science
of Ukraine is not perfect. First, the monopoly of publishing and manuals
delivery by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, without
taking into account the demands of the educational process participants and
the market economy conditions, prevents from obtaining the necessary
results. Secondly, existing system doesn´t foresee the responsibility
of the officials of the regional educational authorities for the timeliness
and completeness of the providing students´ with the manuals.
During the audit there was found out that the Ministry of
Education and Science of Ukraine doesn´t coordinate the activity of
the methodical centers that elaborate and publish the manuals for the
secondary, vocational and higher educational institutions. This fact had
negative impact on the immediate decision-making.
Due to the lack of the necessary efficiency and flexibility
the timeliness of manuals publishing and delivery to the consumers
haven´t been provided. As a result the numbers of new manuals have
been kept at the storehouses and have not been used during the educational
process. Moreover, the part of the pupils remained without manuals
according to the new programs (Ukraine should transfer for 12 year
education period until 2010).
The Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine didn´t
ensure the transparency of the copies selection that assisted the lobbying
of interests of particular authors and publishing houses including those
which received negative references while approbation and use of
corresponding publications. The results of the audit on the provision the
educational institutions with the manuals conducted by the Accounting
Chamber of Ukraine have attracted attention of the public, the Parliament,
the Government and the Ministry of Education and Science. As a result of
the audit the amendments were made to the legislative in this field.
Particularly, the Government Decree "On the improvement of the work
related to the provision of the pupils and students of the educational
institutions with the manuals and training appliances" was passed; the
amendments to the acting procedures on the pupils and students provision
with the manuals were made; the system of the institutions responsible for
this direction was reorganized.
The Accounting Chamber of Ukraine carries out the monitoring
over the measures taken following the audit results. However, revealed
problems that had to be solved by the Ministry of Education and Science of
Ukraine haven´t been eliminated completely.
The other audit on the Implementation of the Public Program
on Informatization of the Secondary Educational Institutions and
Computerization of the Rural Schools was conducted by the Accounting
Chamber of Ukraine. The Program goal was providing the teachers and pupils
of the rural schools with the access to the domestic and world
informational resources by equipping computer classes and Internet
networking.
The audit revealed that the Program hasn´t provided the
creation of equal conditions for the schools in the rural area. This
Program covered only 38 percent (2,5 thousands of schools) of the total
number of 6,6 thousands of schools in Ukraine.
The Accounting Chamber of Ukraine also emphasized that the
Program implementation management was not efficient. The measures on the
provision the rural schools with the dedicated connection´s channels
weren´t coordinated with the available and necessary resources for
their creation. As the result the technical problems with the Internet
access in the distant regions have appeared and this problem has not been
solved. Within the Program implementation only the computer software was
purchased, moreover the computer software of different configuration. The
Accounting Chamber of Ukraine has concluded that the Ministry of Education
and Science of Ukraine created the non-transparent, uncontrolled and
inefficient system of the development and implementation of the Program on
Informatization of the Secondary Educational Institutions and
Computerization of the Rural Schools. As the result - the main task of this
Program to increase the number of schools with the dedicated
connection´s channels and the Internet networking as well as the
teachers´ and pupils´ access to the Internet and other domestic
and world informational resources was not realized.
Taking into consideration the Accounting Chamber´s
recommendations the Program on Informatization of the Secondary Educational
Institutions and Computerization of the Rural Schools was brought in
conformity with the National Program on Informatization that has provided
additional control over its implementation. So the monitoring system over
the targeted procurements of the computer classes was implemented; the
legal frames on the elaboration and implementation of the software tools to
the educational process were developed and adopted; the system of IT
teachers retraining was implemented.
The auditors of the Accounting Chamber of Ukraine have also
investigated the problem regarding the efficiency of the State Budget funds
utilization assigned for the vocational education.
Along with unemployment problem in the country there is a lack
of qualified working staff in Ukraine. By solving this problem the
economic and industrial potential of the country could be strengthened
significantly.
Since the function of the training the above mentioned
specialists based on the funds of the employers is at the initial
development stage in Ukraine. Such training in the vocational educational
institutions is realized for the state budgetary funds based on the public
needs.
Taking into consideration the above mentioned problems the
Accounting Chamber of Ukraine has carried out the Audit on the
utilization by the Ministry of Education and Science the State Budget Funds
assigned for the training the working staff in the vocational educational
institutions at the base of the public needs.
The auditors of the Accounting Chamber of Ukraine have
revealed the main problems in the sphere of working staff training. These
problems are the low level of training; lack of the connections with the
enterprises; the outmoded material resources base of the educational
institutions and the state incapacity to realize training using complex
technological equipment; the non-perfect structure of the institutions
financing oriented at the ensuring of the social component of the expenditure
(wages, scholarship and lack of the capital investments); the
psychological stereotypes of the young persons who consider the
career of the qualified worker non-perspective; the deficit of the
working staff which can work with the high-technology equipment;
inconsistency between the working staff training and the regional needs and
needs of the particular employers. These facts lead to the disproportion at
the labour market due to the lack of the demands for the trained staff of
the mentioned qualification. At the same time, taking into consideration
the demand for the high-qualified workers who able to work with the complex
technology equipment, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine
assigns only 27,4 percent of the total volume of the public needs for their
training.
The increased of the different types of the modern working
professions doesn´t assist to the elaboration of the corresponding
standards for the training of the working staff. For the 5 years the only
one new specialization was implemented.
The audits conducted by the Accounting Chamber of Ukraine has
defined that the vocational institutions doesn´t execute their main
function - training of the qualified working staff. Moreover, they are used
for the social protection of the unprotected youth groups. Within the
structure of the budget expenditures for the professional training the
expenditures for the assistance, scholarship, food etc. are prevailed. The
assignments for purchasing the training equipment are not foreseen and as
the result the training is conducted for simple and no prestige
professions.
Based on the audit findings the Accounting Chamber of Ukraine
has put forward the proposals most part of which was realized.
Particularly, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine has made
amendments to the procedure on forming the public needs in the working
staff training taking into account regional and employers needs; 51 new
specializations oriented at the modern technologies were introduced during
2006; the cooperation with the employers was established that has led to
the increased number of students who were employed under the labour
contract with the enterprises and organizations.
At the same time some problems have to be solved by the way of
legislative control and change the state policy in this sphere. We conduct
permanent monitoring over our recommendations implementation.
The use of the State Budget funds assigned for the higher
education is under the constant control of the Accounting Chamber of
Ukraine. During last years the number of audits in this sphere was carried
out in the Ministry of Education and Science and other central executives
authorities. The ensuring of the public needs in high-qualified specialists
is realizing for the State Budget funds by the way of annual forming,
allocation and implementation of the public order for specialists´
training with higher education. For these purposes more than 5 percent of
the State Budget expenditures are assigned annually.
For the period from 2000 to 2008 the number of students which
study in the higher educational institutions has increased more by one and
a half and has consisted more than 2,8 million persons (Diagram 1).
The main problems related to forming and realizing the public
order for the training specialists with higher education are:
- low level of the study of public needs in the specialists
taking into account the long-term perspective by the public customers;
- lack of the coordination between the customers, higher
educational institutions and employers concerning the young specialists
employment;
- some questions related to higher education and public needs
in specialists training are not regulated by legislative;
- lack of the control over the quality of the specialists
training in the higher educational institutions as well as lack of the
responsibility of the public customers for improper forming and realization
of the public order.
As the result the internal labour market on some popular
specializations (lawyers, economists, some types of the physicians) is
oversaturated that lead to increased number of unemployed in these spheres.
The demand in the engineering specialists is not satisfied. But the
Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine continued to increase the
scope of license for the higher educational institutions that train
specialists who can not find a job in future. This situation testifies to
irrational and inefficient budget funds utilization.
During the audits the facts of violations of the license
provisions concerning the enrolment and graduation of the specialists in
the higher educational institutions are revealed regularly.
As the result of the audit conducted timely and
qualitatively we could attract the attention of the government officials to
defining the appropriate needs in the specialists from the point of view of
specializations as well as to decrease the scope of the public order for
the specialists training with the higher economic education (at 10 percent
more in 2007 than in 2006). The Ministry of Education and Science has
strengthened the control over licensing the higher educational institutions
and realization of the license provisions from their side. As the result,
more than 75 higher educational institutions and their branches (7,7 % from
the total number of higher educational institutions) have stopped their
activity. The control over the job placement of the graduated students has
been strengthened. Establishment of the job placement centers subordinated
to the higher educational institutions has been introduced on a regular
basis.
The effectiveness and efficiency of all control measures,
including in the sphere of education, were achieved due to the transparent
activity of the Accounting Chamber of Ukraine.
The information on the audit findings including conclusions,
proposals and recommendations were sent to the Parliament, the President of
Ukraine, the Cabinet of the Ministers, to the audit objects with the aim to
eliminate the revealed infringements and defects as well to the mass-media,
placed in the Internet and published in the informational bulletins. The
constant monitoring of the implementation of the Accounting Chamber of
Ukraine proposals and recommendations by the audit objects are realized
permanently.
Taking into account the urgency of issues related to the
utilization of the budget funds assigned for granting the education for all
levels of population, the Accounting Chamber plans to conduct regularly the
performance audits on different problems in the sphere of education and to
elaborate the proposals and recommendations for the improvement the
effectiveness and efficiency of the budgetary funds expenditures.
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