Optimization tools of education network

Abstract

It is determined that school as a center of human capital formation, and as an institution requiring effective funding and management is the asset of the territorial community development. The main problems of the development of educational network of territorial communities in Lviv region related to the inconsistency of the educational network development to the demographic situation in the region, as well as the inefficient management system of educational institutions are identified in this paper. Non-optimized educational network is a burden on the development of the local community, as the community is forced to spend its own funds to finance educational needs, which in turn limits the funding of other activities, including infrastructure expenditures, development expenditures which are important for community life. The implementation of administrative and territorial decentralization reform faciliated the strengthening of local authorities role in educational infrastructure management, the increase of educational institutions autonomy and active public involvement in solving the problems of their management. The main tools for optimizing the educational network of local communities in the context of decentralization reform are identified and analyzed in this paper. The author considers them as: change of the principles of funding and transition to «funding per student», use of educational subvention and quantitative criteria for funding schools from the state budget, formation of educational districts and support institutions. Compared to other regions, Lviv region has dynamically reformed its educational network. However, the united territorial communities of Lviv region are less active founders of basic educational institutions than districts, and the students who study there, demonstrate lower level of knowledge in the assessment of the state final attestation and externally independent assessment. The influence of the educational subvention on the changes of the educational network in Lviv region is determined. It is determined that the use of buffers in the calculation of the index of financial capacity of the school network in 2021, significantly affected the level of differentiation of the index of financial capacity. This approach can be an obstacle to the optimization of the school network.