Director of the Center for Education Quality summoned to the Rada over the National Multidisciplinary Test in Odesa Oblast

The director of the Ukrainian Center for Educational Quality Assessment (UCEQA) , Tetiana Vakulenko, was summoned to the Verkhovna Rada at 12 p.m. on June 10 following the situation in Odesa, where children were taking a 13-hour National Multidisciplinary Test (NMT).

According to the Judicial and Legal Newspaper, in particular, MPs want to hear how the NMT is proceeding and whether children were offered the opportunity to take the test during an additional session.

Earlier, the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, stated that the National Multimedia Test(NMT) in the Odesa region was effectively disrupted due to air raids.

The room where the NMT was held was not actually prepared for martial law and frequent air raids. Due to the constant interruptions, the test lasted from 9:00 a.m. to approximately 10:00 p.m.—more than 13 hours of continuous stress for the children. According to the participants, they were not even provided with basic necessities, such as access to water and food, during this time. Communication with parents was severely restricted: only some children who felt unwell were able to contact them.

He also highlighted the situation of orphans, who, according to the Ombudsman, were left completely without any support during their hours-long stay at the testing center.

The Ombudsman called this situation an unacceptable failure of the NMT system under martial law, which fails to provide children with safety, basic necessities, or equal opportunities and actually violates children’s rights. In his view, such an organization of testing is unacceptable and requires an immediate response from the Ministry of Education and Science and a review of procedures.

The National Multisubject Test (NMT) is a form of entrance examination for higher education in Ukraine, introduced in 2022 (along with the Master’s Comprehensive Test (MCT) and the Master’s Test of Educational Competence (MTEC)) due to the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. It is intended to temporarily replace traditional entrance exams in the format of the ZNO.

Кирило Бойко