In 2025, teachers of small schools will not be paid from the budget: who does it concern?

The government decided not to finance the salaries of teachers who teach in schools with a small number of students from the state budget.

From September 1, 2025, schools with fewer than 45 children will fall under such restrictions, and after a year – schools with up to 60 students.

The Ministry of Education and Science explained the government’s decision and explained what options there are for children and teachers from small schools.

What will change?

From September 1, 2025, teachers in schools with fewer than 45 students will not receive a salary from the education subsidy.

And from September 1, 2026, this innovation will also apply to schools with fewer than 60 children. Schoolchildren will go to support schools.

At the same time, this decision does not apply to primary schools and will be valid only for education at the level of grades 5-11.

Primary schools with fewer than 45 and fewer than 60 pupils will continue to receive government funding.

“The primary school should be as close as possible to the child: if older students can make their way to a support school, it will be difficult for young children.” – explained in the Ministry of Education and Culture.

Also, all school-age children were added to the calculation of the educational subvention of each community. That is, the community will receive funds for the education of all children, but will not be able to spend them on small schools.

This means that local self-government bodies can decide:

• or bring students of these schools to the nearest larger school;
• or to pay for the work of teachers of small schools from local budgets.

Similar decisions have already been made regarding rural schools. In particular, since September 1, 2016, schools with fewer than 25 students are not financed from the educational subvention.

“Access to quality education for all children is one of the main goals of the Ministry of Education and Culture. Such international studies as PISA, as well as the results of the National Secondary Education Examination (NMT) show that students from rural schools usually have lower academic success than their peers from small and large schools. bridge.

Therefore, the first provision of access to quality education concerns children from villages”the department says.

What will happen to students of small schools?

The Ministry of Education and Culture says that the local authorities should organize transportation of children to the support school. Children must be accompanied by a teacher on such trips.

A support school is a school to which children are brought from different settlements at a distance of up to 30 kilometers. It is bigger, has teachers and is better equipped.

“For the second year in a row, the state allocates a subvention for the purchase of buses for the transportation of children – 1 billion hryvnias each. Last year, it was possible to purchase more than 450 buses in co-financing with local budgets.” – they say in the department.

What will happen to the teachers?

If the local self-government bodies decide not to finance the operation of the low-capacity school on their own, the teachers will be able to get a job in the support schools.

They should also be provided with a lift.

Why stop funding small schools?

It is not possible to form classes in schools of I-III degrees, where there are less than 45 students.

Children study individually or in combined classes (in primary school), which unite children of different ages.

According to the Ministry of Education and Culture, because of this, “they don’t get the proper level of interaction with each other, they don’t learn from each other, and they don’t see examples to follow.”

Such schools usually lack teachers. Teachers cannot accumulate enough hours in their specialized subject to earn a sufficient salary, so some subjects are taught by non-specialist teachers.

“The government’s decision should encourage local self-government bodies to send children to larger schools that are staffed by teachers, technically equipped, etc.,” – say the MES.

The state also hopes to improve the quality of education for children in villages.

The international study PISA-2022 showed that students from villages lag behind their peers from cities by 4.5 years in terms of academic results.

Also, last year, students from villages showed a worse result on the NMT. The average Ukrainian language score of students from villages was more than 6 points lower than that of students from cities; in mathematics – by more than 8 points; in the history of Ukraine – by almost 3 points. At the same time, rural education needs more funding.

“On average, the state spends 30.4 thousand hryvnias per year on the education of one student from the village, and 24.4 thousand hryvnias in the city. In some villages, the cost of educating one student reaches more than 51 thousand hryvnias.

This is due to the need to maintain and pay salaries to employees of a large number of schools with few students. That is, education in villages is more expensive, but the quality does not justify these costs.” – say the MES.