ANNEX C. Site visits
The site visits in Ukraine took place between 26 October 2015 and 6 November 2015 and the initial results of the integrity review were discussed in a validation meeting with national and regional stakeholders on 15 and 16 March 2016.
Consistent with the approach taken in previous integrity reviews and in OECD education policy reviews, the selection of locations, organisations and persons was based upon non-probability sampling techniques. Specifically, sampling decisions were based upon these considerations:
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balanced geographical distribution (with certain areas of the country excluded due to the risk of conflict)
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balance between visits in the capital, major regional cities and smaller regional cities
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regions with different levels of economic development
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urban and rural providers
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well-performing and ill-performing institutions
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providers at all levels of education
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all groups of education participants and stakeholders: decision makers – providers (including teachers and administrators) – beneficiaries (students and parents)
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various levels of governance (central – regional – local)
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adjacent sectors, as far as relevant (i.e. employers)
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international partners
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civil society representatives.
The OECD review team met over 200 participants in Kyiv, the cities of Poltava, Lviv, Odessa and Zhytomyr, and in rural areas surrounding some of those cities. The team visited public pre-school, primary/secondary, vocational and tertiary institutions, in-service teacher training institutes, and private education providers. Members of the team held meetings with authorities responsible for education on national and regional levels (rayons and oblasts), as well as with institutions that monitor the national education system (e.g. the National Testing Center, the State School Inspectorate, the Institute for the Modernisation of Educational Content, representatives of an employers’ federation). Finally, there were numerous meetings with parents, students and civil society organisations. The visits concluded with a debriefing session for the Ministry of Education and Science.
Site visits to education providers typically organised parallel meetings with teachers, principals/regional administrators and students, so that representatives from these groups could speak freely. The full programme of the site visits is provided below.