Education is not just about knowledge, it is also about choice. The student’s choice – what to study. The school’s choice – what profiles to offer. The state’s choice – how to build a system that truly prepares children for the future. Sometimes it seems that the easiest thing to do is to change nothing, to leave high school as it is. But can we afford such inaction?

Today, high school in Ukraine forces students to study everything, with no real opportunity to focus on important subjects. Many children turn to tutors because the school curriculum does not provide sufficient preparation for university admission. Teachers are forced to teach several subjects at once due to staff shortages. And communities, especially rural ones, simply cannot provide a modern level of education in high school.

Draft Law No. 13120 not only proposes changes, it offers a fundamental step forward: the creation of high-performing lyceums that will give students the opportunity to choose a specialised course of study, receive a quality education and be better prepared for their future careers. Transforming the school network is indeed a challenge. But will it not be more expensive to leave children without a quality education and the country without trained professionals?

We talk to SERHII KOLOBOSHYN, MP, Deputy Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Education, Science and Innovation, one of the authors of Draft Law No. 13120, about how the reform will change the education system, what the communities’ expectations are and why high school should not only be accessible but also truly effective.

Draft Law No. 13120 is positioned as a tool for improving the network of lyceums and enhancing the quality of specialised secondary education. At the same time, critics of the reform believe that its real motive is to reduce spending on education. How can you comment on this?

This is absolutely not true. If the network is created as envisaged in the proposed Draft Law No. 13120 or the alternative Draft Law No. 13121, it will require more expenditure and more investment in the creation of a high school. Let me explain why. Firstly, no school is being closed, we are talking about a relative redistribution of degrees between schools. As a result, no teachers are being made redundant, whether they are primary school teachers (grades 1–4) or secondary school teachers (grades 5–9). It is not on the table at all. In addition, teachers of grades 5–9 often work together with students who study at senior specialised schools (grades 10–12). Secondly, the creation of an efficient academic lyceum will require investment in the material and technical base, in the transport of children to this lyceum by a normal road, and in the adequate repair of the educational premises. All this will be an essential requirement, which is not stipulated in the law, but in its bylaws. Furthermore, regardless of the fate of this Draft Law, we insist that these needs should be included in the 2026–2027 draft budget as a parliamentary amendment. Alternatively, I hope that the Cabinet of Ministers, when drafting the budget, will provide for a separate subsidy for the establishment of a senior professional school.

In fact, as far as costs are concerned, the main idea of both Draft Law No. 13120 and the alternative one is to make the criteria for establishing an academic lyceum more specific. It should not depend on the number of children in a particular parallel, nor on the number of classes, because the number of classes is very flexible – from 5 to over 20 children, and different communities may interpret this in different ways. The main idea is that children should have a choice of different profiles, taught by qualified teachers. And this is only possible in groups! Therefore, each class will be divided into groups of no more than 8–12 children. Accordingly, the teachers will work with groups. And this is not cheap from a financial point of view because, roughly speaking, a class of 24 children is divided into three groups and now they have three different teachers teaching the whole class, not just one.

It is clear that the volume of subsidies for education will increase. Moreover, the concept of the reform includes a change in the remuneration of teachers. It must be increased!!! no matter what we do with the network, curricula, and the like. If we do not drastically increase teachers’ salaries, all this will be one-legged or nothing at all. I am not ready to say what the final decision will be, because it is being prepared by the Cabinet of Ministers, but the concept is that teachers of senior specialised schools, because it is a specific training, will receive more than teachers of other levels. This practice is very common in successful education systems around the world. Therefore, I completely refute the ‘argument’ or myth that the reform of the senior specialised school is about saving money.

I hope that I have demonstrated with arguments that the creation of a separate senior specialised school will, in fact, lead to greater economic investment. And these are the costs that the state is obliged to invest in the overall quality of education. After all, the aim of the reform is not to reduce costs, but to improve the quality of education. We want to create conditions in which students can choose their profile, study in depth the subjects they will really need in the future, and at the same time acquire the necessary knowledge of basic subjects. One of the main problems with the current system is that most schools, especially in rural areas, cannot offer a real choice of profiles. The reform aims to overcome this problem. We are not just changing the system, but creating conditions in which every student can study in a quality institution with all the necessary profiles, modern equipment, qualified teachers and the opportunity to prepare for their future profession without the need for tutors.

One of the most controversial provisions of the Draft Law is the requirement that lyceums must have at least 288 students in grades 10–12 to receive state funding. Opponents believe that this provision will threaten the existence of lyceums in many communities. Do you have an estimate of how many schools will actually meet these criteria?

First of all, where did the number of 288 students come from? The Draft Law states that there should be at least 12 groups in three different profiles. A group consists of at least 8 children, so if we multiply 12 by 8, we get 96 students. We have three classes – 10th, 11th and 12th, so we multiply 3 by 96 and get 288 students.

Consultations with representatives of all stakeholders in the reform of senior specialised schools are underway, which will be followed by the Committee’s discussion of the Draft Law, the first reading, and I think the number of groups will be reduced.

But if the decision is made to leave, say, 6 groups, then there is no point in developing this Draft Law at all. Multiply 6 groups by 8 students and you get 48. These are the two classes that are still in the current law.

Now to the ‘threats’ to the existence of lyceums in many communities, which you asked about. The Swiss-Ukrainian project Decentralisation for Improved Democratic Education (DECIDE) has modelled a network of specialised secondary schools. This work has been carried out with the involvement of local governments, with the participation of departments and offices of education working at the level of communities, districts, and regions. Over the past year, the DECIDE and the Ministry of Education and Science have held open discussions in the regions. Long-term plans for the creation of a network of specialised secondary schools have already been approved in 16 regions. In some regions these documents were approved by decisions of regional councils, in others by an order of the head of the regional military administration. If I am not mistaken, there are plans to create about 1,750 academic lyceums. And only 200 of them do not meet the requirements of Draft Law No. 13120. And this number will be lower if the number of groups is reduced. Moreover, according to analytical data, out of these 200 lyceums that I mentioned a little more than 100 do not actually meet the requirements of the current legislation. So, they will still have to be transformed.

I would like to point out that communities that really care about the future of their children have already undergone this transformation and are happy with the results. There are good examples in Slavuta in the Khmelnytskyi region, in Volodymyr in the Volyn region and in Zhytomyr.

In one way or another, many communities will have to organise the transport of students to lyceums. Are there proper roads and school buses everywhere?

The network of specialised secondary schools approved by the regions takes into account the relevant logistics. Of course, there will be exceptions, such as mountainous areas and areas close to the war zone. I hope that in 2027, when the model of a senior specialised school is launched, there will be no more war. But now we have to model the network for every situation.

Of course, not everyone likes the idea of having to organise transport for schoolchildren to lyceums. But look at vocational education institutions. We do not build a network of vocational schools to be in close proximity to the home or to every community. We do not train electricians, seamstresses, welders, mechanics in every community. We do not open an inclusive resource centre in every community. In a single region, the largest number of vocational education institutions does not even reach 40. There should be focal points where children can get quality education. The truth today is very sad – the quality of education, especially in rural areas, is disastrous. In some areas, more than 35% of rural teachers teach three or more subjects. This is not because they are super teachers. It is because there are simply not enough teachers.

Children in rural areas do not have the opportunity to choose science, physics, chemistry, biochemistry and other subjects. According to official data, 80% of children there choose either one of the humanities profiles – Ukrainian philology or history, or foreign philology – out of 27 profiles, or they choose a universal profile. A universal profile is a bargain with a conscience or an educational oxymoron, a paradoxical combination of the incompatible, it covers everything. But the very notion of a ‘profile’ implies a deep immersion in specific subjects. It turns out that a universal profile is a kind of compromise when a school, unable to provide a quality profile education, chooses a universal option because it is easier to distribute teaching hours among all teachers. Just imagine, we do not even give high school children the opportunity to think about the engineering path, the scientific path, the professions that will add value to the economy. This is a disaster from the point of view of who is going to make the weapons we need, who is going to maintain the nuclear power stations when the specialists leave them for their well-earned retirement. We have no one to replace them! So, the question is: what good are small schools in villages, and for whom? They are many times more expensive to run than large schools. And if someone chooses this option, they should know that it is not about the future of the children who study in such a school, it is not about the future of the country. And that is a bad story.

The Draft Law stipulates that communities must submit a plan to optimise lyceums by 1 September 2025, or the national government will decide to close or merge schools. Some consider this deadline to be too strict, as the reform requires careful planning. Why this timeframe?

I also believe that if this Draft Law had been submitted by the Cabinet of Ministers a year ago, everything would have been much simpler and more logical. There would have been more time for its implementation.

This is how it works. The senior specialised school reform is a continuation of the NUS (New Ukrainian School) reform, which began in 2017. So, the children who started primary school back then will be in grade 10 in 2017, which is a senior specialised school. We are not going to tell them, ‘Wait another year or two, because we are not ready, or that you will continue to study under the old curriculum.’ So, it is better to complete the formation of the network of senior specialised schools in 2025 and have two more years for transformation than to leave it until the last minute and have little time to prepare a proper start of the senior specialised school.

I have already said that 16 regions have approved perspective plans for the formation of a network of senior specialised schools. The remaining regions have developed their plans, but they have not yet been approved. We have seen them and I can say that they are ready for approval. It is very important that Draft Law No. 13120 is passed, otherwise it will be a big step backwards. If it is not passed, the communities will not be interested in long-term plans. They will do what the current law says – two classes, three profiles. We certainly do not want that to happen.

Decentralisation: Some people believe that restricting access to lyceums by setting a minimum number of students contradicts the constitutional right to education at the place of residence. How do you respond to such comments?

The Constitution of Ukraine guarantees every child the right to education, and this reform does not restrict that right. On the contrary, we offer solutions that will give students equal opportunities to study in quality conditions.

We are not repealing the provisions of the Law on Education regarding territorial accessibility for primary and secondary education. Absolutely nothing will change with regard to primary and secondary schools. When a child enters grade 10, he or she can choose either an academic or a vocational lyceum. According to consultations with lawyers, there are no restrictions on constitutional rights.

In fact, this Draft Law is an invitation to rethink the model of a senior specialised school. We want to move away from the formal approach and build a system where every student, regardless of where they live, will have access to high-quality, modern education with a real choice of a profile. This is not about closing schools – it is about concentrating resources, teachers, and equipment to create real educational centres capable of providing competitive education that will meet the challenges of the times.

In conclusion

The reform of senior specialised schools is an attempt to break the vicious circle where students spend years studying subjects ‘for the sake of it’ and then pay for their meaningless education with their whole lives. The question is not just whether we have enough money for lyceums or buses. More important is whether we can finally create a system where physics or history is taught not as a set of dates and formulae, but as a tool for understanding the world.

The challenge today is not just to optimise schools, but to change the philosophy of education. Because the quality of education is not measured by the number of lyceums opened, but by whether a graduate can distinguish the scientific method from myth, analyse sources from blind faith in information noise.

The reform will only be meaningful if the first graduates of the new system come to university not with empty notebooks, but with critical minds; not with indifference to subjects, but with a clear understanding: this knowledge is their tool for life, not just a ‘mark for admission’. Otherwise, we will get another case with a ‘completed’ stamp, but without any real impact. And that is the worst-case scenario, because it is not the budget figures that are at stake, but the generation that will build the country after us.