Ukraine's Cabinet Cuts Funding for 31 Schools in Odesa, Mykolaiv, Kherson

In March, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine adopted a resolution stipulating that starting from September 1, 2025, the state will no longer allocate funds for teachers' salaries in schools with fewer than 45 students.

Based on this resolution, journalists of the Education.ua publication counted 31 schools in Odesa, Mykolaiv, and Kherson regions that may be left without state funding.

Most of them are in Mykolaiv region - 22 schools, and seven in Odesa region. However, as Oleksandr Lonchak, director of the Department of Education and Science of the Odesa Regional State Administration, told Intent, the termination of funding for student salaries in these schools does not mean that the schools will be closed.

"It is said that there is no funding from the state budget for such institutions, but the founder (community) can maintain them at their own expense," he said.

According to the aforementioned resolution, starting from September 1, 2026, educational subventions will no longer be available to institutions with fewer than 60 students. Officially, the government guarantees transportation of schoolchildren to hub educational institutions.

In total, journalists counted at least 403 schools in Ukraine with less than 45 students. According to the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, the cost of educating one student in a village is significantly higher than the cost of educating an urban student. On average, this figure is 30.4 thousand hryvnias per year, while in the city it is 24.4 thousand. In some villages, this figure reaches more than 51 thousand hryvnias. The Ministry of Education and Science considers such expenditures unjustified, as the results of the national multi-subject test, which reflects the level of preparation of graduates for university admission, show that children from rural areas perform worse than urban students.

Кирило Бойко