How kindergartens will work in the 2025-2026 academic year
Kyiv • UNN
From 2025, a law "On Preschool Education" is in effect in Ukraine, which defines the fundamentals of the preschool education system's functioning. The law establishes new rules for educators and parents, and also defines new types of educational activities.
From April to September, new groups are formed in preschool educational institutions throughout Ukraine, and starting in the autumn, thousands of children will attend kindergartens for the first time. "UNN" decided to tell how kindergartens will operate from September and what parents, educators, and the children themselves can expect.
Changes in the law on preschool education
As "UNN" reported, in June last year, the Verkhovna Rada adopted in the second reading the draft law "On Preschool Education," which will improve working conditions for educators and expand parental rights. The law was signed by the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy in July 2024, and it came into effect in January of this year.
"The Verkhovna Rada recognizes preschool education as a mandatory primary component of lifelong education. State authorities and local self-government bodies must promote the development of preschool educational institutions as centers that ensure the formation of a person from the first years of their life, the formation of human capital, and the sustainable development of society and the state," the document states.
Organization of the educational process
The principles of state policy and the fundamentals of educational activities in the field of preschool education also include:
- child-centeredness and a personality-oriented approach to child development in accordance with their individual characteristics, needs, interests, abilities, gifts, and freedom of choice;
- equal access to preschool education;
- academic integrity;
- academic freedom of pedagogical staff;
- autonomy of educational entities (academic, personnel, organizational, financial);
- priority of family upbringing of a child, pedagogical partnership between the family and the preschool educational institution;
- accessibility (including territorial), free of charge, and secular nature of preschool education in state and communal preschool educational institutions;
- creation of conditions, including inclusive or special educational environments, for preschool education for children with special educational needs, taking into account their developmental characteristics and in ways and forms that are most convenient and effective for them;
- creation of a safe and healthy educational environment;
- the mandatory nature of preschool education for preschool-aged children in accordance with the state standard;
- digitalization of management processes in preschool education;
- the combination of collegial and sole proprietorship principles of managing a preschool educational institution.
The basic stages of preschool education are determined based on the age-related periodization of child development, which includes:
- infancy (up to one year);
- early childhood (from one to three years);
- preschool age (from three to six - eight years):
- young preschool age (from three to four years);
- middle preschool age (from four to five years);
- older preschool age (from five to six (seven) years (up to eight years for children with special educational needs).
According to the law, the language of the educational process is the state language; however, children belonging to indigenous peoples or national minorities whose languages are official languages of the European Union are guaranteed and ensured the right to obtain preschool education in their respective languages.
In addition, the state promotes the study of international communication languages, primarily English, in state and communal educational institutions.
The law states that "in Ukraine, the right to obtain preschool education is guaranteed, and opportunities are created for its implementation, taking into account the individual characteristics, special educational and other needs and capabilities of each child".
Every child, regardless of the grounds for their stay in Ukraine, is guaranteed free preschool education in state and communal educational institutions.
Children have the right to obtain preschool education in various forms or by combining them. The main form of obtaining preschool education is in-person (daytime), but parents have the right to organize preschool education for their children through a family (home) form.
Children, including children with special educational needs, may obtain preschool education at the choice of their parents:
- in preschool educational institutions regardless of subordination and form of ownership;
- in preschool subdivisions of legal entities, including educational institutions;
- at home - through a family (home) form of preschool education;
- with the assistance of individual entrepreneurs who carry out educational activities in the field of preschool education.
The document is intended to ensure the territorial accessibility of preschool education by:
- taking into account the demographic situation, the state of the network and the capacity of educational institutions, and the results of child registration for planning and development purposes of relevant territories;
- forming and maintaining a network of communal preschool educational institutions in accordance with the needs of the residents of relevant territories;
- maximizing the proximity of the place of preschool education to the child's place of residence;
- transporting (if necessary) pedagogical staff to the place of preschool education for children and vice versa (to the place of residence of pedagogical staff);
- ensuring equal conditions for the development of preschool educational institutions of all forms of ownership and creating conditions for the development of other educational entities in the field of preschool education;
- planning and assigning service areas to communal preschool educational institutions;
- promoting the introduction of various forms of preschool education, taking into account the needs of children and parental choices;
- creating and ensuring the functioning of mobile kindergartens to provide preschool educational services at the place of residence of children in territories where free preschool education is not provided by other means.
Children are enrolled in communal preschool educational institutions for preschool education in the following order:
- orphans, children deprived of parental care, children of deceased military veterans, defenders of Ukraine;
- preschool-aged children;
- children of military personnel, children who are internally displaced persons, children of persons affected by the Chernobyl disaster;
- children who are siblings of children attending the respective preschool educational institution (if they reside in the service area of such preschool educational institution);
- children of employees of the respective preschool educational institution (if they do not reside in the service area of such preschool educational institution);
- children who are siblings of children attending the respective preschool educational institution (if they do not reside in the service area of such preschool educational institution).
Operation of preschool educational institutions
For the proper organization of the educational process, preschool educational institutions form various groups of children, including age-specific, mixed-age, extended-hours (early morning, late evening, weekends, holidays, and non-working days), short-stay, and groups for learning the language of the respective indigenous people or national minority (community) of Ukraine alongside the state language, etc.
The number of children per educator in a group is:
in a group of children of the same age:
- no more than 5 children up to one year of age;
- no more than 10 children from one to two years of age;
- no more than 15 children from two to three years of age;
- no more than 20 children from three years of age;
in a group of children of different ages:
- no more than 15 children from three years of age;
- no more than 10 children if there is at least one child aged one to three years in the group;
- in a group of children with short-term stay or in a group of children with round-the-clock stay - no more than 10 children;
- in an inclusive group - no more than three children with special educational needs.
“Teacher's Thousand” will not affect the minimum wage supplement - MES06.02.25, 11:05 • 26896 views
The law defines the procedure for hiring and dismissing educators. In particular, a person with pedagogical education in the relevant specialty and/or appropriate professional qualification of an educator, who freely speaks the state language or speaks the state language to an extent sufficient for communication (for foreigners and stateless persons), can be appointed to the position of an educator in a preschool educational institution.
A person who:
- is declared legally incompetent or whose civil capacity is restricted by court;
- has a criminal record for committing a criminal offense, if such conviction has not been expunged or removed in the manner prescribed by law;
- is deprived of the right to hold the relevant position by court order;
- has committed an intentional criminal offense against a child, in the presence of a child, using a child, or has been cruel to a child, according to a legally effective court decision.
The duration of working hours is also defined: the working hours of pedagogical staff per week for one tariff rate are 35 hours for a manager, methodologist-educator, social pedagogue, educator's assistant, and 30 hours for an educator, practical psychologist, and other pedagogical staff.
For an educator, physical education instructor - 25 hours per week; for a music director - 24 hours per week; for a practical psychologist, defectologist, speech therapist - 20 hours per week; for a head of a club (studio, section, etc.), a teacher - 18 hours per week. These hours are considered pedagogical workload, meaning direct work with children.
Additionally, rest time for preschool education employees is also defined. Pedagogical staff are granted an annual basic leave of 56 calendar days, and educator assistants in preschool educational institutions are granted an annual basic leave of 28 calendar days.
The Government has set a single vacation period for preschool employees11.02.25, 18:42 • 35751 view
Types of educational activity organization
A preschool educational institution may organize and conduct its educational activities according to one or more types of educational activity organization:
- nursery - a type of educational activity organization that provides preschool education for children aged from three months to three years;
- kindergarten - a type of educational activity organization that provides preschool education for children aged from two to six or seven years, and for children with special educational needs - up to seven or eight years;
- special kindergarten - a type of educational activity organization that provides preschool education for children with special educational needs caused by physical, mental, intellectual and/or sensory impairments, behavioral disorders, aged from two to seven or eight years;
- mobile kindergarten - a type of educational activity organization that provides preschool educational services at the place of residence of children, including using or based on a specially equipped vehicle for providing such services;
- family kindergarten - a type of educational activity organization at the place of residence of a family in an individual residential building, providing educational services to children from birth who are related, and/or children who are not members of the family;
- mini-kindergarten - a type of educational activity organization with simultaneous attendance of no more than five children;
- pedagogical partnership center - a type of educational activity organization that ensures the development of children from birth with the mandatory participation of their parents or one of them;
- child development center - a type of educational activity organization that provides preschool education for children (including children who receive preschool education from other educational entities or at home), including under specific partial programs, and/or offers them individual psychological-pedagogical, correctional-developmental services.
