The Government has adopted a number of decisions to support the education sector and social security of pupils and teachers. This was announced by Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal during an offsite meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers in Zaporizhzhia region on 27 December.

A decision has been taken to allocate UAH 1.6 billion in subventions to local budgets for the purchase of school buses next year. At that, Denys Shmyhal noted that in 2024 the Cabinet of Ministers had disbursed UAH 1.2 billion for the purchase of school buses throughout Ukraine. More than 400 such buses have already been procured and delivered to educational institutions.

“In this way, we are creating equal educational opportunities for children in all parts of our country and supporting our manufacturers at the same time,” the Head of Government stressed.

By the way, yesterday, at an extraordinary Government session, it was decided to allocate UAH 2.8 billion for a programme of free hot meals for primary school children.

“More than 1 million pupils will receive free hot breakfasts or lunches next year. This, obviously, includes pupils in Zaporizhzhia region,” the Prime Minister stressed and added that one of the elements of a high-quality educational system is healthy food for children in schools.

It’s worth mentioning that the programme is a component of the Winter Support, like the Teacher’s Supplement programme. According to Denys Shmyhal, to introduce the latter, the Government has redistributed UAH 4.6 of respective subvention for the first half of the following year to ensure that all the Ukrainian teachers start receiving an additional monthly supplement of UAH 1,300.

“This will amount to UAH 1,000 after paying taxes. From 1 September, all teachers will also receive a monthly supplement of UAH 2,600. This will amount to UAH 2,000 per teacher in cash,” the Prime Minister accentuated.

Moreover, the Cabinet of Ministers has earmarked UAH 150 million in subventions to the regions for teacher training. This is part of the New Ukrainian School programme, which will continue next year.

According to Denys Shmyhal, the Ministry of Education and Science should submit for consideration at the next Government meeting the procedures for providing subventions from the state budget in 2025 for all other educational investment projects. In particular, this applies to the continued construction of shelters, the arrangement of canteens, and the filling of classes with equipment for the subject ‘Defence of Ukraine’.

Besides, another critical decision adopted during today’s session is to distribute UAH 305 million in subventions in 2025 to support children with special educational needs.

“We want to make education in Ukraine as inclusive as possible. Every child should have the right and opportunity to learn and grow at school,” the Head of Government emphasized.