Although the COVID-19 pandemic is far from over, there is no doubt that education researchers
will analyze the changes in teaching and learning over the years to come. There is no certainty that
new waves and variants of COVID-19 will not force humanity to radically change educational
technologies in the future. This will bring mankind closer to the predictions of science-fiction
authors and futurists, not taken seriously before. In this regard, it is important to scientifically
document and analyze various measures for transforming education in the current situation, thus,
creating the database for future generations. Analysis reveals that geographically adjacent countries
with numerous current or historical interrelations, show the uniqueness of their response to the
pandemic because of a number of current economic, social, cultural and geographical factors.
Quite promising in this regard are the post-socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe,
which in the second half of the 20th century had almost identical principles for developing national
education systems, but changed significantly under the influence of the reforms of the last thirty
years. Comparing the cases of five universities from Russia, Germany, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic
and the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic enable us, not only to identify common problems, but
also to describe the most effective measures for the reorganization of higher education during the
COVID-19 pandemic, dictated by the need to sustain the quality of teacher training.