Ukraine

The state organs of power include the Ministry of Education, other ministries and agencies, supervising particular educational institutions, VAK (the Supreme Attestation Commission), the Ministry of Education of the autonomous Republic of the Crimea, local executive bodies, and organs of self-government. The Ministry of Education plays the leading role in defining and executing the state policy in education, science, and professional training, as well as the development of curricula and state standards. It defines the norms and rules of admission to higher educational institutions and organizes the attestation of teachers. The ministries and agencies are responsible for the control, inspection, licensing, and accreditation of educational institutions. VAK supervises the attestation of specialists, confers, and approves advanced scholarly degrees. Organs of self-government are represented by general meetings and conferences of educational institutions; district, city, or oblast teacher conferences; and finally by the All-Ukrainian Teachers Convention.

Together with local executive organs, they make decisions about the establishment of the budget financing, the development and social security of teachers and students, and other issues referring to their sphere of competence.

During the Soviet times, the state budget was the only source of financing for the educational sphere. The transition to a market economy and the establishment of non-state educational institutions account for the emergenceof new sources of financing, including local budgets, private enterprises, and individuals. According to the Law on Education, the state financing of the educational sphere cannot be less than 10 percent of the GNP. All primary and secondary school students are provided with free health care. Orphans and children from low income families also receive allowances for food and clothes.

The economic crisis of the late 1990s created serious problems for the educational system: deterioration of school and university buildings; lack of funds for renovation, modern equipment, and textbooks; delays in the payment of salaries to teachers; and shortages of electricity and heating. The main aims of the Ukrainian government and the Ministry of Education include the preservation of the existing network and the development of effective mechanisms of financing the educational sphere under the new socioeconomic conditions.

After the declaration of independence in 1991, the use of languages became an important political issue. Since Ukraine is a multinational state, the languages used on its territory include Ukrainian, Russian, Romanian, Polish, Hungarian, and others. Traditionally the western part of Ukraine (Lvov, Vinnitsa, Ivano-Frankovsk, etc.) predominantly used the Ukrainian language, whereas the eastern part (Donetsk, Lugansk, Kharkov, Dnepropetrovsk, and the Crimea) gave preference to Russian. The Law on Languages in the Ukrainian SSR, adopted in 1989, for the first time gave Ukrainian the status of a state language (derzhavna mova). Article 10 of the Constitution (1996) secured this provision and obliged the state to enhance the development and extensive use of the Ukrainian language in all spheres of life. At the same time it gave Russian the role of a tool of international communication and guaranteed the protection of all the languages of national minorities. According to Article 53 of the Constitution, citizens belonging to ethnic groups other than Ukrainian have the right to get education in their native tongue in state institutions or through cultural societies.