How can the community establish quality specialised education, what are the requirements for creating a network of lyceums, and how can these requirements be met?

In September 2025, our team of regional experts – Ihor Melnychuk, Petro Hotsaliuk, and Khrystyna Duda – held consultations in the Vyshniv, Liuboml, and Lukiv communities in the Volyn region. Together with community representatives, we discussed key issues of secondary education reform.

Special attention was paid to the practical steps that communities can take right now. These include modelling a network of academic lyceums, preparing for the transformation of the school network and fostering cooperation between communities. Other steps include conducting surveys among school students on their choice of profiles, as well as running awareness campaigns for parents and local councillors.

Experts provided community-specific recommendations, explained the legal and organisational aspects of establishing lyceums, and outlined the principles of academic guidance and its benefits for students.

Communities in the Volyn region are actively involved in the reform:

• The Vyshniv and Liuboml communities are planning to open lyceums using existing infrastructure.

• As the Lukiv community already has a renowned vocational education institution, students and parents will be informed about the new academic lyceums opening in the neighbouring communities.

‘Although the deadline for implementing the reform is 1 September 2027, we have already begun to implement changes. It is important to calculate the capacity of the lyceum in advance because it will serve not only students from Liuboml, but also those from neighbouring communities,’ said Roman Yushchuk, Mayor of Liuboml.

‘The Vyshniv community is making every effort to ensure that children can see a future for themselves here. To this end, we are investing in education, renovating and building schools, upgrading social infrastructure and developing the local economy. Students who receive a quality education at the academic lyceum – with its strong material and technical base, qualified teaching staff, and meaningful teaching – will be able to continue their higher education and, in all likelihood, return to their native community to help develop it,’ said Halyna Fedonchuk, First Deputy Head of the Vyshniv Village Council.

Consultative meetings form part of the DECIDE Project team’s broader support for communities in the implementation of secondary education reform.

The DECIDE project is implemented by NGO DOCCU and PHZH International Projects in Education with the support of the Embassy of Switzerland in Ukraine.

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