Former Mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov responded to the situation surrounding the National Multimedia Test (NMT) administered on June 8 by criticizing the acting mayor and the regional military administration.
In particular, the politician criticized the failure to organize the test in school basements, of which, according to Gennadiy Trukhanov, there are 90 in the city.
"I’ll be frank about why this happened. It’s because there were no children of officials from the city’s interim leadership or the regional military administration in those basements. The duo of Oleg Kipper and Igor Koval completely botched the preparations for the test. Instead of coming forward, publicly apologizing, and immediately correcting the mistake, the interim authorities are covering up their inaction, while children continue to take the NMT under the same conditions," the former mayor stated.
On June 9, the Ukrainian Parliament’s Commissioner for Human Rights,Dmytro Lubinets, stated that due to air raid alerts, the administration of the National Multimedia Test (NMT) in the Odesa region was effectively disrupted.
The facility where the NMT was held turned out to be virtually unprepared for martial law conditions and frequent air raid alerts. Due to constant interruptions, the test lasted from 9:00 a.m. to around 10:00 p.m.—over 13 hours ofcontinuous stress for the children. According to the participants, they were not provided with even basic necessities—access to water and food—during this entire time. Communication with parents was significantly restricted: only a few children who became ill were able to contact them.
He specifically noted the situation of orphaned children, who, according to the ombudsman, were effectively left completely without any support during their many hours atthe testing center.
The ombudsman called this situation an unacceptable failure ofthe NMT systemunder martial law, which provides children with neither safety, nor basic necessities, nor equal opportunities, and effectively violates children’s rights. In his view, such organization of the testing is unacceptable and requires an immediate response from the Ministry of Education and Science and a review of procedures.
The National Multidisciplinary Test (NMT)is a form ofentrance examination for bachelor’s programs to pursue higher education in Ukraine, introduced in 2022 (along with the Master’s Comprehensive Test (MCT) and the Master’s Test of Academic Competence (MTAC)) due to the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. It is intended to temporarily replace traditional entrance exams in the EIT format.
Кирило Бойко