Congress Resolution I

RESOLUTION
FIRST ALL-UKRAINIAN TEACHERS 'CONGRESS
FROM THE SUBJECTS OF SPIRITUAL AND MORAL ORIENTATION

 

June 23–25, 2017, Ostroh Academy National University

We are participants of the first All-Ukrainian congress of teachers of spiritual and moral subjects from 24 regions of our state and Kyiv: people's deputies of Ukraine, deputies of local governments, representatives of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, regional, city and district departments of education and science , heads and representatives of preschool, secondary, vocational and higher educational institutions and institutions of postgraduate education; scientists, teachers and lecturers of spiritual and moral subjects, representatives of churches, religious and public organizations, psychologists and sociologists, analyzing the state of spiritual and moral education of children, adolescents and youth in Ukraine; discussing the social and professional status of pedagogical workers who teach spiritual and moral subjects in domestic preschool, secondary, vocational and higher educational institutions; Noting the extremely low level of spirituality and morality of a significant part of children, adolescents and youth and Ukrainian society in general, outlining the prospects for the development of spiritual and moral education of children and youth and the introduction of appropriate subjects in education in the New Ukrainian School,
we claim:

1. The process of formation and vital activity of society and the individual largely depends on the spiritual and moral education, and the power, prosperity and state security of independent Ukraine - on the spiritual, moral and intellectual state of civil society.

Spiritual and moral education is a process of mastering the biblical spiritual and moral values traditional for the Ukrainian people and using them in their behavior and life (carriers of different religions use their sacred books in spiritual and moral education).

2. The development of spiritual and moral education of the young generation in Ukraine is hindered by the artificially imposed gap between faith and knowledge due to dominance
atheistic picture of the world in the education system, as well as the low level of spirituality and morality, charity and dignity in society.

Analysis of the current socio-cultural situation in Ukraine shows that one of the notable and negative features of Ukrainian society is a deep spiritual and moral crisis, moral relativism, which results in corruption, crisis of the family, alcoholism, crime, drug addiction, AIDS, gambling, smoking, gossip, early teenage pregnancy, etc. These manifestations of immorality are inherent in the youth of Ukraine, as evidenced by numerous cases of adolescent abuse and involvement of adolescents in suicidal groups. This necessitates the priority of spiritual and moral education, in particular through the further introduction and improvement of teaching relevant subjects and the organization of spiritual and moral education of children, adolescents and youth.

3. For diverse and harmonious development of personality it is important that the educational process is based on the traditional worldview of Ukrainians with the values ​​of polyconfessional Ukrainian people: theocentrism (Christocentrism), Ukrainocentrism, cordocentrism, logocentrism, patriotism, child-centeredness, etc. - both on the basis of scientific understanding on the treasures of spiritual, moral and cultural heritage of the Ukrainian people and humanity in general, based on the spiritual, moral and intellectual achievements of religious and secular devotees of truth, in particular, the genius Gregory Skovoroda, whose three hundredth anniversary we will celebrate in 2022.

4. Subjects of spiritual and moral orientation are acme-education, disciplines of educational and ethical-cultural nature, which form a system of spiritual and moral values of the individual: development from intelligent man (homo sapiens) - to spiritual man (homo spiritus).

5. From the first years of Ukraine's independence in the state educational institutions began teaching subjects of spiritual and moral orientation in the West, and later in all other regions of our state as optional subjects of choice.

6. From 1992 to 2017, Ukraine has accumulated significant and unique experience of spiritual and moral education: created curricula, compiled manuals and textbooks, trained teachers, defended PhD and doctoral dissertations on spiritual and moral education. At the same time, teaching covers only a part of preschool children, students of secondary schools and vocational schools, students, students of advanced training courses of postgraduate education.

7. Thanks to the efforts of research and teaching staff of the National University "Ostroh Academy", Ukrainian Catholic University, Kyiv University. Borys Hrinchenko, Melitopol University. Bohdan Khmelnytsky, University of Education Management, National Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of Ukraine, National Pedagogical University. MP Drahomanov, Drohobych State Pedagogical University. Ivan Franko, other higher educational institutions, regional institutes of postgraduate pedagogical education in secondary schools of all regions of Ukraine provided teaching courses "Fundamentals of Christian Ethics", "Ethics: Spiritual Principles", "Christian Ethics in Ukrainian Culture", "Biblical History and Christian Ethics »Etc.

With the assistance of Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil, Kyiv regional institutes of postgraduate pedagogical education, Research Laboratory of Christian Ethics, Christian Psychology and Christian Pedagogy of the National University "Ostroh Academy", Research Laboratory of Christian Pedagogy and Psychology of the Ukrainian Open University , creative team at Kyiv University. Borys Hrinchenko, Ukrainian College named after V. Sukhomlynsky developed curricula, manuals, textbooks, textbooks, teaching aids and workbooks from the above courses for preschool, secondary, out-of-school, vocational and higher education institutions of Ukraine.

8. In Ukraine, the professional training of teachers of spiritual and moral subjects is actively developing, the basic (reference) centers of which are higher educational institutions: National University "Ostroh Academy", Catechetical and Pedagogical Institute of Ukrainian Catholic University, State Higher Educational Institution "University of Education Management" National Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of Ukraine, Melitopol State Pedagogical University. Bohdan Khmelnytsky, National Pedagogical University. MP Drahomanov (Kyiv). In the institutions of postgraduate pedagogical education a system of advanced training of teachers of spiritual and moral subjects has been created, where both domestic and foreign specialists are involved in teaching.

They conducted a number of educational courses and trainings, provided the participants of these classes with spiritual, didactic, educational and methodical and other literature.

Despite some successes and achievements in the development of spiritual and moral education in Ukraine, we state that these measures are not enough to maintain the proper place and role of spiritual and moral education in domestic education.

Given this we emphasize on the urgent need to ensure proper attention from the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, regional departments (departments) of education, school principals and their teaching staff, parents to the education of children and youth in Ukraine on the basis of traditional spiritual and moral values ​​(including in the context of national-patriotic and spiritual-moral education), as well as the urgent need to develop and consolidate legal and organizational-managerial mechanisms for introducing these values ​​into the educational process of the new Ukrainian school, which provides for the introduction of variable and invariant components of preschool, vocational and higher education institutions of spiritual and moral subjects, saturation of spiritual and moral content of other subjects; development of legal, personnel, methodical and financial support for teaching these subjects; training, retraining and advanced training of teachers of these subjects and courses, etc.

The list of competencies of educational entities set out in the Concept of the "New Ukrainian School" should be introduced as a priority spiritual and moral competence.

In order to ensure the effectiveness of spiritual and moral education of children and youth in Ukraine we offer:

1. The Public Council for Cooperation with Churches and Religious Organizations under the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine:

summarize the proposals of the delegates of the Congress on the actualization of the potential of spiritual and moral education in the content of national education and submit them to the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine.

 

2. The Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine:

consider:

- clarification in the State Standard of General Secondary Education of the psychological portrait of a graduate of a secondary school on the basis of strengthening the importance of spiritual and moral values with the further development of appropriate educational programs;

- introduction into the educational process of preschool, general education, out-of-school, vocational and higher educational institutions of spiritual and moral subjects, development of appropriate educational programs;

- introduction to the curricula of secondary schools from 1 to 11 classes of subjects of spiritual and moral orientation due to the hours of the invariant component, taking into account the provisions of the Conceptual Principles of studying subjects of spiritual and moral orientation in secondary schools, approved by the MES Board 12 of June 29, 2006);

- Amendments to Annex 13 to the Order of the Ministry of Education and Science, Youth and Sports of Ukraine of April 3, 2012 № 409 to formulate a note to the Standard Curriculum of secondary schools with instruction in Ukrainian and study of ethics or spiritual and moral courses in such editors:

"**** Spiritual and moral courses should be implemented with the consent most
parents of students in the class and in the presence of a trained teacher. Parents who do not want their children to study spiritual and moral courses write a written statement of cancellation. If possible, the secondary school ensures that students choose one of the alternative courses (for example, "Ethics", "Fundamentals of Christian Ethics", etc.) ";
заклад забезпечує обрання учнями одного з альтернативних курсів (наприклад, «Етика», «Основи християнської етики» та ін.)»;

- creation on the basis of the Public Council for Cooperation with Churches and Religious Organizations at the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine of a working group to develop a draft Conceptual Framework for Spiritual and Moral Education of Children and Youth in Ukraine with their subsequent approval by order of the Ministry;

- removal from educational activities of educational institutions uncharacteristic of Ukrainian Christian culture elements related to divination, sorcery, magic, occultism, spiritualism, which negatively affect the psychological development of the child and form an anti-Christian worldview (eg, Halloween);

- entering in the documents on education information about the study of subjects of spiritual and moral orientation;

- review of the list of works of writers used in the educational process, on the subject of morality;

- proportional coverage of alternative theories of the origin of life on Earth during the teaching of courses of social-humanitarian and mathematical-natural cycles;

- dissemination and generalization of experience in teaching subjects of spiritual and moral orientation in the regions of Ukraine on the basis of creating a single electronic information platform;

- study of the international experience of spiritual and moral education of children and youth and holding an international congress for this purpose;

- granting state status to all-Ukrainian events dedicated to the problems of teaching subjects of spiritual and moral orientation: "Educator of the Year in spiritual and moral education", "Teacher of the Year in spiritual and moral subjects", "Teacher of the Year in spiritual and moral subjects" and Olympiad Young Bible Scholars ”along with other activities for teachers, children and youth;

- informing teachers and the general public about the purpose and objectives of teaching subjects of spiritual and moral orientation through the media, August and January pedagogical meetings, guidelines of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine;

- promoting the development of educational and methodological literature for the integration of biblical principles and spiritual and moral component to the content of academic disciplines (literature, language, history, biology, chemistry, physics, astronomy, geography, etc.);

3. The Ministry of the Temporarily Occupied Territories and Internally Displaced Persons of Ukraine:

to consider the issue of developing together with the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine and the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine a program of national-patriotic and spiritual-moral education of children and youth in Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

4. Regional, Kyiv city state administrations, regional councils, other local self-government bodies:

1) consider issues related to the development and adoption of regional and local programs to promote the teaching of spiritual and moral subjects;

2) to provide financing for the teaching of subjects of spiritual and moral orientation and the publication of appropriate educational and methodical manuals;

3) to promote the strengthening of attention to spiritual and moral education in the educational process of preschool educational institutions;

4) in each region of Ukraine to create initiative groups of scientists and practitioners to implement new ideas, forms and methods, programs and courses of spiritual and moral education in the practice of preschool, secondary and higher education.

5. Education management bodies, regional institutes of postgraduate pedagogical education, heads of educational institutions:

promote:

- further introduction of teaching subjects of spiritual and moral orientation in preschool, secondary, vocational and higher educational institutions;

- approval of regional and local programs to promote the teaching of spiritual and moral subjects, to intensify work on the implementation of already approved relevant programs and decisions of local governments;

- further work on the training of teachers of spiritual and moral subjects, ensuring the improvement of their professional skills;

- creation of methodical associations of pedagogical workers on subjects of spiritual and moral orientation;

- creation of offices for spiritual and moral education in educational institutions;

- dissemination of positive experience in teaching subjects of spiritual and moral orientation in secondary schools, as well as education on the basis of spiritual and moral values in preschool educational institutions;

- participation of teachers, children and youth in various competitions, exhibitions, forums, presentations, competitions and tournaments in the subjects of spiritual and moral orientation;

- participation of teachers, children and youth in various competitions, exhibitions, forums, presentations, competitions and tournaments in the subjects of spiritual and moral orientation;

to provide educational load of teachers who teach subjects of spiritual and moral orientation, according to the curriculum;

during the distribution of hours of the variable part to prefer the study of courses of spiritual and moral orientation;

4) to carry out systematic methodical support of teaching subjects of spiritual and moral orientation;

annually hear information about the state of teaching subjects of spiritual and moral orientation in preschool, secondary, vocational and higher education institutions;

6) on the basis of the course of preparation of teachers of subjects of spiritual and moral orientation to institutes of postgraduate pedagogical education developed at the National University "Ostroh Academy" to develop advanced training courses on spiritual and moral education of preschool children, students, methodologists, heads of preschool educational institutions, educators.

6. Heads of educational institutions, representatives of religious and public organizations:

1) to establish educational work among employees of the education system to spread knowledge about the use of spiritual and moral potential of the richness of Christian pedagogy in the history of Ukraine and abroad, informing the general public about the legal opportunities for teaching spiritual and moral subjects, their content and significance for the child's personality. ;

2) inform the parent community about the content and
features of teaching subjects of spiritual and moral orientation, to develop methodical recommendations;

3) to develop methodological recommendations for educators, teachers and lecturers of preschool, secondary, vocational and higher educational institutions on the teaching of spiritual and moral subjects and the integration of Christian values into the content of the educational process.

7. Heads of higher educational institutions:

to ensure the spiritual and moral education of student youth to introduce into the curriculum disciplines of the relevant direction: elective special courses "Fundamentals of Christian ethics", "Fundamentals of Christian culture", "Ethics of married life on Christian principles", "Education of personality on Christian principles", " World giants of Christian culture: Hryhoriy Skovoroda, Taras Shevchenko, Ivan Ogienko, Konstantin Ushinsky, Mykola Pirogov ”and others.

8. Leaders of religious organizations:

1) to promote the introduction of teaching subjects of spiritual and moral orientation in educational institutions, in particular through educational work with the faithful, the provision of financial support;

2) to discuss the introduction of teaching spiritual and moral subjects at cathedrals, synods, congresses, meetings of philanthropists, in temples, houses of prayer.

9. Mass media, education management bodies, regional institutes of postgraduate pedagogical education, representatives of educational institutions, religious and public organizations:

- removal from educational activities of educational institutions uncharacteristic of Ukrainian Christian culture elements related to divination, sorcery, magic, occultism, spiritualism, which negatively affect the psychological development of the child and form an anti-Christian worldview (eg, Halloween);

2) to promote the dissemination of information about the Congress and its decisions;

3) to cover in the mass media the course of conferences, round tables and other events on spiritual and moral education.

 

The Congress believes that the implementation of its resolution should be based on the joint efforts of the family, the Church, religious organizations, state institutions, educational institutions, and public organizations.

The Congress calls on the Churches and religious organizations to unite their efforts to educate the younger generation on the traditional spiritual and moral values of the Ukrainian people.

The Congress entrusts the Public Council for Cooperation with Churches and Religious Organizations at the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and the All-Ukrainian Council for the Implementation of Congress Resolutions to monitor the implementation of the resolution of the First All-Ukrainian Congress of Spiritual and Moral Teachers.

 

Participants
Participants
from subjects of spiritual and moral orientation