Distance education as a pre-requisite of sustainable innovative development

Abstract

The period of independence of the Ukrainian state has witnessed identification of new priorities of development of education, formation of a legal base, and practical reforms of the educational branch on the basis of the Program of “Education. Ukraine of the XXI Century” adopted by the government. Its main aim is to create appropriate conditions for dynamic development and selfactualization of every personality, forming a generation capable of lifelong learning, and creating and developing values of civil society. One of the structural components of education is postgraduate education. Its essence has been defined by the Ukrainian Law “On Higher Education”(cl. 10):“Postgraduate education is specialized improvement of education and professional training of the person through extension and renewal of the person’s professional knowledge, skills and abilities or learning another specialty on the basis of the previously received educational and qualification level and practical experience”. The system of postgraduate education is based on the concept of continuous learning. Its basic principles are consistency, continuity, individualization of learning, fundamentalization, humanization and humanitarization of education. Continuous education is an innovative principle of education relying on the psychological and pedagogical idea of personality formation. The main criteria of the concept of continuous education on the Ukrainian market of educational services are:(a) coverage of the entire human life by education;(b) continuity between individual stages and levels of education;(c) openness and flexibility of the educational system throughout life;(d …