An electronic petition on the government portal demanding the preservation of the school network has collected more than the required 25,000 votes in less than a week. This is reported by UNN.
The author of the electronic appeal, education representative Oksana Yeremenuo, called on the government to preserve the accessibility for Ukrainian children to receive education at their place of residence.
Details
The appeal emphasizes that the adoption of draft laws No. 13120 of March 18, 2025 and No. 13121-1 of March 26, 2025 on improving the mechanisms for forming a network of lyceums will actually deprive a significant part of communities, especially small ones, of the opportunity to have their own lyceums and provide their children with the opportunity to receive a complete secondary education.
According to the proposed bill, the occupancy of senior specialized school classes should be at least 24 students, and at least 4 classes per parallel of one academic year. Therefore, in the lyceum, from 2027 there should be at least 288 children in grades 10-12! And this is simply an unattainable and artificial barrier for most lyceums, which completely ignores the realities of our country
Accordingly, if there are fewer children, the state will stop funding such an institution. In this case, the community can save the lyceum, but its maintenance, according to the law, will fall entirely on the shoulders of the community itself. Rural, settlement and even part of urban communities will not be able to meet such a draconian criterion.
The author emphasizes that children from villages and towns will be forced to travel dozens of kilometers to "centralized" lyceums. As a result, the question arises of the availability of dormitories at lyceums and the provision of an appropriate living and safe environment for minors. However, the proposed bill does not define the sources of funding for all these changes. Therefore, commuting every day, children will be forced to get up 1.5 hours earlier and return home in the evening.
In the context of constant shelling, a safe educational environment must be guaranteed for education workers, students, and parents, in particular, through the accessibility of education at the place of residence.
Let us remind you
The Ministry of Education explained that primary schools and gymnasiums in Ukraine will not be closed, but the choice of profiles and subjects by students will change. The state allocates funds for equipment for laboratories.