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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
On the eve of 1 September, the Ukrainian educator community expects from the new leadership of the Ministry of Education and Science not abstract statements about the success of reforms, but concrete answers to questions with which teachers, school principals, parents, and students enter the new school year.
This year the stakes are especially high. Ukrainian education is simultaneously operating in wartime, overcoming educational losses, reforming the senior school, implementing the New Ukrainian School (NUS), attempting to overcome staff shortages, and restoring damaged infrastructure. In the state budget for education and science for the 2026 year, almost 299 billion hryvnias are allocated. This is a huge resource, but society has the right to know what concrete result it will obtain from these funds.
The first and probably the most sensitive question is teachers' salaries.
The government announces another increase in payments to teachers — by 20% starting in September. But a teacher is interested not in a percentage in a presentation or the average salary across the sector. What he is interested in is the concrete amount he will receive on his bank account after taxes.
Therefore the Ministry must publish clear calculations: how much from 1 September a young teacher, a teacher of the first and highest category, a form tutor, a teacher with full or partial workload, a teacher in a frontline community will receive. It is also necessary to explain how allowances for adverse working conditions and other surcharges will work.
The second big question is the future of children who studied not under the New Ukrainian School program.
From 1 September 2026 this year, pilot testing of a new model of senior specialized schools will begin in 150 lyceums. A nationwide transition is planned from 2027 year. The concept provides that older students will have more opportunities to choose an educational profile. On paper this looks logical. But for parents, a completely different question is important: what will happen to a particular child?
If a student studied under the old program, will he be able to continue his education without problems? Will he stay in his school? Or will he have to move to another institution? Will he lose a year? What document will he receive after finishing studies?
This problem may be especially acute in small communities where there may not be several lyceums with different profiles. The reform should not create a situation where a child in a big city has a choice among several profiles, while a rural child practically studies within a single available direction.
The third question is meals for children.
The state has already taken serious steps in this area: students receive free meals, school dining rooms are being modernized, funds are allocated to organize meals in frontline and border regions.
But a fundamental question arises: will the quality of a child’s meals depend on which community he or she lives in? During wartime hot meals are not just a social service. For many children this is effectively part of basic daily support during the school day. Therefore society must know whether there is a real plan to provide quality hot meals not only for primary school students but also for children of 5-11 grades.
The fourth question – assessment.
The education system is changing, but before 1 September teachers need the clearest possible rules. The situation is especially difficult due to the war. Some children study in person, others remotely. Some students are returning from abroad, others have significant educational losses.
The fifth question – textbooks.
The Ministry of Education and Science talks about a large-scale delivery of educational literature: in 2026 year it is planned to deliver about 14 million copies of textbooks for students of 4-th and 9-th grades and for teachers. But here again the key is not the statistic of millions of printed books. We need to know how many children will actually have the necessary textbooks on the first lesson of 1 September.
The sixth question – infrastructure of the new senior school.
150 pilot lyceums — this is not just 150 schools with new curricula. It is an absolutely new logistics.
If a specialized lyceum is tens of kilometers from the settlement, a child must be safely delivered to school. For this, buses, drivers, fuel, normal roads, shelters, and clear route organization are needed. In 2026 year 2 billion UAH are allocated for purchasing school buses, but a bus itself does not solve the problem.
If a child needs to travel a long distance daily, the question of a boarding option arises. And this already involves accommodation, meals, educators, safety, and additional expenditures from the local budget.
Therefore before the experiment starts, the Ministry must answer very specifically: is each of the 150 lyceums ready to admit children, where they will come from, how they will be transported, and where they will reside in case daily transportation is not possible.
And finally the seventh question – English in kindergartens.
From 1 September 2026 year English becomes a mandatory component of the educational program for older preschool children. Strategically this is the right decision, since knowledge of English has long been one of the key factors of a person’s competitiveness. We need to answer whether there are enough teachers who can teach English well, how many educators have already undergone relevant training, whether the necessary curricula and materials exist, and whether funding for additional workload is provided.
It is not permissible for a situation to arise where English in kindergartens is formally mandatory, but in reality it will be taught only where a given institution happened to find a trained specialist.
All seven of these questions basically come down to one thing: how truly prepared is Ukrainian education for the new school year? On the eve of the new school year society expects from the Ministry of Education and Science not general declarations, but concrete figures, timelines, mechanisms, and accountable people.
Mykhailo Tsimbaluk, Member of Parliament of Ukraine; author's page on Facebook
Photo from open sources
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