25% of the labour population in the cities of oblast significance and AHs work in the field of education and pay taxes to the local level. This was stated by Liliya Hrynevych, Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine, at the forum on “Decentralisation in the field of education” held today, 23 November 2017.

“30% of the population are involved in educational services, and educational expenses make up about 45%, and sometimes even more, of your local budgets. It suggests that the decentralisation process is equally impossible without an educational component, as the reform of education is without decentralisation. Education is one of the main responsibilities of local authorities. The hromada depends on the quality of education, and education is one of the main factors of hromada unification. This is a platform where new social relations and contacts can form between the residents,” added the Minister, speaking with the representatives of local authorities.

Establishment of hub schools is a significant factor in this process.

“It was planned that the hub school would become the initiative of newly amalgamated hromadas interested in building quality education for their children. In fact, it is like this as 134 out of 450 hub schools currently operating in Ukraine were established exactly on the initiative of the newly formed hromadas. Moreover, the trend is improving compared with the last year. If during the same period last year, 20 out of 135 hub schools, that is 15% of the total amount, were established in AHs, this year already 30% of the hub schools operate within AHs. It is worth mentioning that hub schools are not just places children are carried to, it is a new quality of Ukrainian education,” said Liliya Hrynevych.

She also added that the state understands its responsibility and makes substantial investments in the hub schools’ development. Thus, within 2 years, UAH 500 million of the state budget were allocated for the purchase of buses for the transportation of children to secondary schools, and another 500 million were allocated to equip natural science classrooms. At the same time, in 2017 a separate subvention of UAH 300 mln was allocated for these expenses of AHs.