In Kyiv, First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska met with Andreas Schleicher, Director for Education and Skills at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and Head of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).
The First Lady thanked him for his participation in the supervisory board of The Future Index and for his expert support. The Future Index is a comprehensive study of the well-being of children in Ukraine, initiated by the Olena Zelenska Foundation.
Last year, a pilot study was conducted across nine parameters: education, health, safety, material well-being, mental health, social skills, risky behaviors, relationships with family and friends, and the institutional care system.
"As a result, the 'Future Index' in Ukraine stood at 0.64 on a scale from 0 to 1, where higher values indicate better conditions. The weakest links were education, health, and institutional care," noted Olena Zelenska.
The expertise, recommendations, and hypotheses provided by Andreas Schleicher have become valuable guidelines in preparing this year’s survey, "Future Index: Professional Expectations and Vision of Adolescent Development in Ukraine." During their in-person meeting in Kyiv, the Foundation team thanked Andreas Schleicher for his support and shared initial findings. For the new research, over 5,000 adolescents and an equal number of parents and guardians were surveyed.
"I’ll just say that nearly one in five adolescents in Ukraine has not yet thought about what they want to be in the future. This means that now is the time to help children plan for their tomorrow," said the First Lady.
Olena Zelenska also extended an invitation to Andreas Schleicher for the Fifth Summit of First Ladies and Gentlemen, which will take place this fall in Kyiv and will focus on education.
"I will never stop thanking you for participating in the first summit in 2021. That was when I was just starting to work on this initiative. It was the first, and so far, the only summit we managed to hold in peacetime," said the First Lady of Ukraine.