MODERNIZATION OF THE RURAL SCHOOL : PROBLEMS AND PERSPECTIVESOF CARPATHIAN

This article is about the rural schools in the Carpathians. The author speaks about the problems and prospects of the school in the Carpathians. In Ukraine today in the mountainous region large quantity of rural schools are with low occupancy. Reduction of the number of schoolage children in rural areas leads to poor occupancy of schools and inability to maintain them properly by local authorities. Today in Ukraine within rural schools there are primary schools, educational complexes “School-Kindergarten”, numerically small schools etc. The author speaks about a problem: how to give qualitative education to a student in the countryside? This article analyzes the problem of quality education in minority School Mountain, search teacher who would work in the village.

The ХХІ-st century -is the period of major economic transformations.Total commercialization of Ukrainian society, desire to accumulate wealth lead to the destruction of spiritual values, replacing the traditional ideals of our nation 7 .
In this context, there is a gradual destruction and disappearance from the map of Ukraine such phenomenon as the village school, the question of existence of which were the subject for research studies by O. Bida, B. Kuzya, N. Prysiazhnyuk, A. Savchenko and others.The problem of functioning and preservation of rural schools in Ukrainian Carpathians region under current conditions is important.
We should see two-side nature of the problem: on the one hand the need for preserving schools in rural areas is due to the existence of the village as a unit, it is here where we are still able to preserve the social basis of Ukrainian culture, formation of values foundations of social life; on the other -on conditions of poverty and social stratification rural school currently does not provide pupils with qualitative knowledge.
In this context, many legislative projects are worked out at the national level.In particular, the project "Concept of Human Development for the period till 2020" provides development of key sectors of the humanitarian field, including attention drawn on the development of rural infrastructure, improvement of the quality of life of the rural population and schools including."An important element of the process of formation of the value paradigm of humanitarian development is change of ideas about the concept of "quality of life" 1 .
In the context of above mentioned, the strategic direction of the school development in the village is its quality provision that "along with the welfare and human health becomes mandatory factor and indicator of success and well-being of citizens.Qualitative education must meet social needs, and diverse needs of the individual, as close as possible to take into account inclinations, abilities, interests; form capacity for cooperation and further education throughout life; educate humanity, tolerance, responsibility in relation to people, nature, society and the State" 1 .
Improvement of the of rural education confirms the fact that two-thirds of schools in Ukraine are rural (12.8 thousand, or 65%, 1,3 million students are educated).
According to statistics, a network of schools in rural areas during 2008-2012 was reduced by 1053 schools.On September 2012 -12,799 establishments (1,319,573 students) 6 , and occupancy of rural schools is also reduced (see Tab.As the Tab. 1 shows a large quantity of rural schools are with low occupancy.Here the question is: on the one hand -a small number of students should contribute to quality of education, on the other hand -the lack of staff and financial capacity does not improve the educational level of students.
Reduction of the number of school-age children in rural areas leads to poor occupancy of schools and inability to maintain them properly by local authorities, and therefore a state program "School bus" was introduced, within which delivery of children to schools in larger settlements is ensured.However, according to the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine in 2011 14208 school children were not covered with it due to constant underfunding, high proportion of defective and obsolete vehicles, poor road network, no roads with hard covering 2 .
In such circumstances, the inevitable is the question of diversifying types of rural schools in Carpathian region.Today in Ukraine within rural schools there are primary schools, educational complexes "School-Kindergarten", numerically small schools etc 5 .
But such a classification of rural schools today is in a state of change, which is caused by some controversy of development of rural schools in Ukraine: the introduction of positive changes in the content of state standards (the document aims to fulfill the tasks of primary and secondary schools, which defines the requirements for basic education of both students and high school): introduction learning a foreign language, science, computer science, etc. to the content of education on the one hand; and on the other -inability of quick and quality provision with material resources and specialists; availability of material resources and lack of technical equipment.According to the Ministry of Education, 11089 rural schools have their own central heating or boiler, water supply -10791 (including hot water -5358), a canteen or buffet with hot food -11612 (723170 people), physical training gym -8578, teaching and research areas -6139; household sector -274 secondary schools.The problem is the lack of qualified teachers and technical equipment: in 2011 only 57.39% of rural schools were connected to the Internet 2 .Although computerization and informatization of schools reduce impact of the factor "geographic distance" cutting "digital divide", overcoming the gap in teaching students from rural (mountainous) areas and small towns 3 .
There is a conflict between the needs of education of a citizen and underestimation of teaching component in education.
Not taking into account the influence of education on identity formation makes it impossible to develop moral values, the commodity-money relations become priority.Antisocial lifestyle of modern rural as well as urban youth has led to the fact that according to polls 40% of Ukrainians "are concerned about drugs, alcohol in the school environment, the appearance of immorality, lack of spirituality, early sexual relations".Each fifth has inequitable attitude of teachers to students, the nature of the relationship between students, largely due to income inequality", weakening the impact on school life choices 5 : conflict between increasing educational workload on students and their health weakening; -among the major health problems of students is growing educational workload, lack of exercise, poor scheduling, problems with food and drinking water, bad vision and more; conflict between the existing level of educational services and the need for qualitative education.
There is a problem: how to give qualitative education to a student in the countryside?To solve the problem, in 2012, at the parliamentary sessions, "Rural Education: crisis tendencies and possible solutions" sensible and important recommendations were made that should be taken into account: The way out of this situation is to create educational districts.However, in the opinion of the President of Ukraine optimization of the network of educational institutions "has no right to deprive the opportunity to study according to the location of home, because transportation of children to a big school creates for children a very long school day" 4 .
Another option for school in the village, in our opinion, is the study and implementation of best practices and creation "family school" with a small number of students, complex "Schoolkindergarten".
Of course, qualitative education in a rural school with a small number of students depends on the quality of teacher training, improvement of financial condition and motivation of young scientists in the countryside.
Progress in knowledgeable, innovative information society requires modernization of educational environment.
The achieved status of information and innovation of small rural schools in Ukraine requires also improvement.According to statistics, "in terms of speed in informatization Ukraine lags behind not only world leaders, but also neighboring countries -Poland, Russia and others.
Special role in improving the work of small rural schools, solving problems of its quality belongs to distance learning and electronic educational resources which should be effective complement for traditional forms of education, build competency based approach to training.These modern forms of education are important in terms of the implementation of specialized education in the development of rural schools.They give positive effects to work with children with special needs, gifted children.
Thus modernization of school education should provide consistency and completeness.Today obvious is the fact that due to the introduction of information and communication technologies, differentiation, individualization of the educational process, the expansion of space for innovation it is possible to solve problems rural schools with a small number of students.