Yesterday, on May 17, 2023, Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine Oksen Lisovyi had an online meeting with Minister of Schools of the Kingdom of Sweden Ms. Lotta Edholm.

Oksen Lisovyi thanked Lotta Edholm for initiating the meeting, solidarity with Ukraine, unwavering support for the Ukrainian educational and scientific system, in particular the measures taken by the Swedish Government to help our students and teachers who are currently in Sweden, and emphasized that the support of the Kingdom of Sweden in the context of the presidency of the Council of the European Union was extremely valuable and important for Ukraine.

In his statement, the Minister noted that among the main priorities of the new team of the Ministry was to create sustainable cooperation with the international coalition of donors and partners, the priority of which would be the security of the educational process, responding to the challenges of war, restoring damaged and destroyed educational institutions, as well as analyzing and continuing reforms of general secondary, vocational and higher education.

Oksen Lisovyi also informed about the initiative to create a coalition of countries to support the printing of textbooks for Ukrainian children and invited Swedish colleagues to join this coalition. For her part, Ms. Lotta Edholm supported the initiative and agreed to disseminate information about it among the EU member states.

Moreover, the Minister also emphasized the importance of implementing the Swedish-Ukrainian project "Support to Decentralization in Ukraine" funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) and implemented by the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SALAR). This project has helped to develop formulas for the distribution of educational subventions, principles for reforming teacher salaries, and managing school networks at the local level.

At the end of the online meeting, Oksen Lisovyi thanked Ms. Lotta Edholm for the constructive conversation and expressed his hope for further cooperation, implementation of new educational and scientific projects and initiatives.