“In the village, the lyceum, the main school, has 280 pupils, but they want to make a gymnasium, and our children have nowhere to go to 10th grade. It’s a horror to travel 20 kilometres.”
“All rural schools in Pavlograd Oblast are 9th grade. But what is it? Where can I kick a child out of the house during the war?”
“You’re not fixing, you’re destroying children’s habitual life. Children already live in endless stress, and you’re putting them even more into it.”
Such or similar comments abound on social media. That’s because local communities have warned parents of ninth-graders that their schools will be transformed into lyceums and gymnasiums as of 1 September.
If a school becomes a gymnasium, it will no longer have 10-12 grades. It will be possible to study in high schools only in lyceums. This is stipulated by the reform of the New Ukrainian
However, there are more those who defend the right of their child to receive a full secondary education where he studied all the time. In a short time, their petition on the government portal gained more than 25 thousand votes, and the educational ombudsman and the Verkhovna Rada joined the dispute resolution.
Who is the target of the reform
The Ministry of Education and Science said it had approved a list of 150 educational institutions that will become lyceums.
“It includes lyceums from all regions of Ukraine – urban and rural, with different teaching formats and different numbers of students,” the ministry said in a Facebook post.
Such steps are due to the third and final stage of the “New Ukrainian School” reform, during which lyceums and gymnasiums will be created.
The reform of high school continues from September 2025. And that is why the enrolment of pupils in the 10th grade will be stopped where schools will turn into gymnasiums.
And if for Kyiv citizens or residents of other large cities to choose a college or school will not be a problem, because there is more choice and logistical opportunities, but for children from villages and small towns it becomes a serious problem.
What should change in grammar schools
The essence of the reform of gymnasiums, also called “profile” schools, provides for the transition to a 12-year education system.
There will be three types of general education institutions in Ukraine: primary school (grades 1-4), basic secondary education in gymnasiums (grades 5-9) and specialised secondary education in universities (grades 10-12).
However, there is an adaptation period in grade 10 with the possibility of changing the chosen direction.
Instead of studying two eocene compulsory subjects.
“The question arises, what state standard and programme will be used to teach children in grades 10 in 2026-2027 and in grades 11 in 2027-2028?” – The Ombudsman asked.
In her opinion, one way out of the situation would be to introduce two types of lyceums – one for grades 10-11, who study according to the old standard, and another for grades 10-12 according to the NUS standard.
She believes that such a transition period should last until the end of 2028.
However, in response to such proposals, some parents are calling for a general halt to university reform while the war continues. And here are the voices of those parents whose children are studying under the NUSH programme, who also fear that the reorganised lyceums will be too far away from their children, a potential threat to them during the war.
Getty Images photo
Is there anything else in
From the village to another school, you have to go far beyond 20 kilometres. This year children were not taken from the neighbouring village because the roads were not cleared, etc.,” Lyudmyla Trokhimchuk wrote on the ombudsman’s Facebook page. – There is a nice big school in the village, but no – take the children so they don’t know where, spend time on transport, get the children up in the morning two hours earlier. I will sign every petition against it.
The main thing is not the status and not the walls
In the Verkhovna Rada on 18 March, a group of MPs registered a bill that would establish guarantees for students to receive a full general secondary education in the same school where they studied, even if the school is reorganised as part of the NUS reform.
But, says MP Oksana Savchuk, it is not yet clear how this will be implemented in parallel with the continuation of secondary school reform, as the
BBC News Ukraine has asked the Ministry of Education and Science to comment on the situation and is awaiting a response.