The paper is focused on the role of ICT education as a key component in the education systems in EU, USA and Ukraine. The research results show that the use of ICT in education and training has been a priority in most European countries during the last decade. It has been determined that the possession of ICT-competency has been proclaimed an important component of successful schooling and lifelong learning, further professional development, effective management of the learning process, and the use of ICT in learning activities in a modern digital society. It has been revealed that in the European countries, the standards of ICT-competency are developed and implemented at all levels of education, the systems of mandatory monitoring and certification of ICT-competency of students, teachers and heads of general educational institutions are in operation. Results show that teachers mainly focus on the development of technical ICT skills, whereas the ICT curriculum centres on the integrated use of ICT within the learning and teaching process. Analysis of foreign experience on modern approaches to the assessment has shown that the assessment of the pupils’ ICT competency in Ukraine is extremely important in the context of modern reforms, since in Ukraine standards for assessing ICT-competency are valid only within the subject “Informatics” at the level of secondary school, while the worldwide tendency is the end-to-end using of assessment tools for students' ICT-competency. Inference should be drawn that building digital competence by embedding and learning ICT should start as early as possible, i.e. in primary education, by learning to use digital tools critically, confidently and creatively, with attention paid to security, safety, and privacy. Teachers need to be equipped with the digital competence themselves, in order to support this process. The authors of the paper made conclusion about the necessity for Ukraine both to study the progressive European experience and to synchronize the education policy in ICT-education with the strategies of the EU and the member states.

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The publication provides a comprehensive analysis of the state and development of national education over the 30 years of Ukraine’s independence, identifies current problems in education, ascertains the causes of their emergence, offers scientifically reasoned ways to modernise domestic education in the context of globalisation, European integration, innovative development, and national self-identification. Designed for legislators, state officials, education institutions leaders, teaching and academic staff, the general public, all those who seek to increase the competitiveness of Ukrainian education in the context of civilisation changes.

The article probes into factors that determine processes of decentralization in managing the general education system. The study entails a review of pertinent literature and an analysis of the distribution of powers among entities managing the general education system based on the European countries' experience. The study concludes that the education management system in the most EU-countries is decentralized or gradually being decentralized and de-concentrated on the basis of the subsidiarity principle. The results of our research give the possibility to affirm that the successful implementation of the decentralization reform requires the following two conditions: political support for proposed changes and the ability of those charged with carrying out the reform. An analysis of literature confirms that decentralization as a process is also a function of factors other than political will and capacity. These factors include trust (the extent of decentralization depends on the central government's trust in the local government, and vice versa), financial troubles, path dances, international developments, etc. An analysis of the distribution of decision making powers in areas of financing and human resources demonstrates that there is a trend towards decentralization, albeit inconsistent due to obstacles on the level of centralized management. The article maintains that there has to be an adequate balance between centralization, which is necessary for the implementation of general national educational objectives, and decentralization, which allows teachers, schoolchildren, parents and the representatives of local communities to participate in education management.

The publication contains materials of the training course “and trends in the development of school education in the EU, USA and China” for educational use in the process of training of applicants for the degree of “Doctor of Philosophy” in the specialties 011 “Educational, Pedagogical Sciences”, 013 “Primary Education”, 014 “Secondary education” (by subject specializations). The mastering of the course involves the formation of holistic comparative and pedagogical competence of a researcher - a qualified specialist who has a high level of readiness for professional activity in the field of comparative education studies. In the manual the purpose and objectives of the course are defined, a description of the study discipline done (Appendix A), thematic information, dictionary of foreign terms and concepts are provided (Appendix B).