Small schools in Ukraine will no longer be funded next year: which ones will close

In Ukraine, the Cabinet of Ministers will stop funding schools from the state budget from September 1, 2025, if they have less than 45 students. This decision does not apply to primary and special schools. Local authorities will either have to finance such municipal institutions (schools) on their own or close them.

According to the government's explanation, the data on the number of students of all types of general secondary education institutions as of November 1, 2024, was used to calculate the educational subvention for January-August 2025. In addition:

• the future calculation of the educational subvention from September 1, 2025, will take into account the number of students in municipal and private general secondary education institutions with 45 students or more. This decision does not apply to primary and special schools (the latter are attended by students with special educational needs).

"The government's decision will encourage local governments to optimize the school network, which will help students receive a better education in larger schools, which are usually better equipped with educational equipment and teachers in all subjects," the government said in a statement.

This means that schools with fewer than 45 students will be left without state funding. The Cabinet of Ministers explained that small schools have only 5-6 students per class, there are not enough teachers, "children do not receive the proper level of interaction with each other, do not learn from each other and do not see examples to follow."

That is why the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has amended the formula for distributing educational subventions between local budgets and approved the distribution for January-August 2025. The resolution "Some issues of the distribution of the educational subvention for 2025" was approved on December 5, 2024.

The educational subvention is the main source of salaries for teachers in general secondary education institutions. It comes from the state budget to local budgets, which pay teachers' salaries.

As OBOZ.UA previously reported, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAP) served a businessman from Prykarpattia with a notice of suspicion of organizing embezzlement of UAH 14.8 million during the construction of a school in the village of Chukalivka, Ivano-Frankivsk region, under the Big Construction state program. The businessman is the third person involved in this case.

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