The preparation of speech therapy teachers following the master’s degree program in the zhytomyr state university named after Ivan Franko

Formation of special education is a hard process, which reaches it’s root from the epoch of antiquity to this day. Reforms in educational space, the aftermaths of war and growth of the amount of individuals with speech disorders, require competent speech therapists, ready to effectively implement acquired knowledge and skill in practical activity with kids and adults. The speech therapy education was developed within defectology for a long time, therefore, at first, the training was carried out specifically for defectologists, in particular, higher defectology education in Ukraine is connected with the opening of the Froebel Women's Pedagogical Institute. Gradually, departments began to appear at other higher education institutions , who were engaged in the training of defectological personnel, and so they did for speech therapists, however, due to difficult historical events, there were no systematicity in these processes. Nowadays speech therapists following the master’s degree program can prepare in 27 universities of Ukraine. The preparation of specialists of a speech therapy profile in modern Ukraine is carried out in accordance to the Bolona system, standards for the first (bachelor’s degree) and second (master’s degree) levels of high education, and since recently, the professional standard for the group of professions «Teacher-speech therapist», «Speech therapist» will also be taken into account. The article highlights the peculiarities of the training of speech therapist teachers under the master’s degree program "Special education. Speech therapy" in the Zhytomyr state university named after Ivan Franko. The general information and content of the educational and professional program, the attitude to its content of the higher education students studying under it were studied. Within the framework of the conducted research, among students of full-time and part-time forms of higher education, the peculiarities of the professional orientation of students were studied, the cycle of mandatory (professional) and optional disciplines was analyzed, the level of practical training under the educational and professional program, the quality of the organization of the educational process in general was studied.