Publication: Ukraine Education Policy Note: Introducing the New Ukrainian School in a Fiscally Sustainable Manner
Loading...
Published
2018-08-01
ISSN
Date
2018-09-11
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
The education sector in Ukraine is in the middle of ambitious - and long overdue - reforms that hold great promise to fundamentally transform the sector. New laws have been passed for higher education (in 2014), for research and scientific activity (in 2015), and, more recently, the framework law for the education sector, law on education (in 2017). Alongside the budget decentralization reform (2014) these laws represent a major shift towards devolving authority from central to local government and the expansion of decision-making autonomy by local authorities and education service providers (for example, schools and universities). Moreover, as part of these reforms, per student financing for schools was introduced in 2017, with the potential to incentivize local actors to use resources more efficiently. Taken together, these changes represent the most ambitious reform agenda for the education system since the collapse of the Soviet Union. However, the costliest feature of the general secondary education law is a promise to increase the starting salary of teachers to four times the minimum living wage by 2023. If not managed carefully, this increase threatens to put the sector on a fiscally unsustainable path which could undermine the broader reform agenda. This note highlights some areas of the reform agenda where more focus will be needed, and presents some options for how to implement the promised wage increase in a fiscally sustainable manner.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2018. Ukraine Education Policy Note: Introducing the New Ukrainian School in a Fiscally Sustainable Manner. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30411 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Ukraine : Education Reform Policy Note(Washington, DC, 2003-02)This note identifies major challenges facing the Ukrainian education system and suggests policy options for addressing them. It is intended to contribute to the ongoing policy dialogue between the Ukrainian Government and the World Bank about the key issues identified in government education policy development and implementation planning to date, and to offer the Bank's views on these issues for the Government to consider as it elaborates its reform program. The note's structure broadly follows that of the government's policy document. Section two outlines the political, economic, and social environment. Section three identifies some of Ukraine's strengths and comparative advantages in education, on which future reform policy can build. Section four discusses cross-cutting issues and challenges, including equity, relevance, efficiency, and accountability. In section five, the note provides recommendations for reform priorities and some policy options for realizing them. Section six identifies potential risks and threats that could hinder the reform process and suggests way to mitigate them. Annex one offer a brief overview of the education system, including quantitative trends and some international comparisons. Annex two provides a set of economic, demographic, and educational data.Publication Rwanda - Education Country Status Report : Toward Quality Enhancement and Achievement of Universal Nine Year Basic Education - An Education System in Transition; A Nation in Transition(World Bank, 2011-01-01)The Republic of Rwanda is a relatively small country located in Central Africa with a population of approximately 10 million people, making it one of the more densely populated countries in the world. The current government is taking positive steps to helps the country emerge from its tragic past, and aims to promote reconciliation and unity among all Rwandese and forbids any political activity or discrimination based on race, ethnicity, or relation. The government's effort to deliver basic public services to its population, including education, also follow the spirit of inclusiveness and aims to diminish gender, socioeconomic and geographic disparities. Rwanda's development agenda is entering a new phase as it transitions from post-genocide recovery to producing a population that is regionally and globally competitive and economically and socially secure. The education sector plays a significant role in fulfilling the national agenda. This Country Status Report (CSR) takes stock of recent progress and identifies a new generation of challenges facing the education sector, particularly in the context of ongoing decentralization and the government's recent initiative to extend basic education to nine years of schooling.Publication A Review of Educational Progress and Reform in the District Primary Education Program (Phases I and II)(Washington, DC, 2003-09-01)The District Primary Education Program (DPEP) is a centrally sponsored scheme launched by the Government of India in partnership with the state governments and external donor agencies seeking to expand the opportunities for poor and disadvantage children to receive quality primary education. This report assesses the progress made in terms of outcomes and processes in the first two DPEP programs. The report contains an introduction, chapters on assessment of the progress toward outcomes and the status and effectiveness of DPEP interventions, and a conclusion.Publication Supervision and Support of Primary and Secondary Education : A Policy Note for the Government of Poland(Washington, DC, 2010-05-19)This policy note examines how five countries: England, Finland, the Netherlands, New Zealand and the Republic of Korea organize the supervision and support of schools and teachers at the primary and secondary levels. Countries are compared and contrasted according to a framework consisting of seven aspects related to supervision. A workshop to discuss a draft version of this note as well as additional issues related to the overall organization of quality assurance systems in education and the Ministry's own current plans was held in Warsaw on May 10, 2010. The study found that there are a number of key issues in the provision of effective supervision and support. These include the issues of where to locate supervision and support institutionally, whether to keep these functions institutionally distinct or not, how to balance accountability and support, particularly given the need for accurate information, additional financial resources, and skilled human resources, and how to ensure the perceived legitimacy of the system.Publication Latvia - Public Expenditures Review : Education Sector(Washington, DC, 2001-01-29)This review has three objectives: (i) assess the education sector outcomes; (ii) evaluate the cost of the education program and the budget formulation process; (iii) identify areas to improve the efficiency of public expenditure on education and make medium-term savings. The Latvian government has demonstrated a strong commitment to education. With 7.2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) allocated to education in 1999, Latvian spending on education compares most favorably to Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) standards. Although reforms in the education sector are being implemented, the sector faces critical challenges. The education sector has resisted adaptation, in spite of significant shifts in the enrollment pattern. The number of preschool teachers and schools only slightly decreased; while the number of children aged 0 to 6 has been falling. With fewer children arriving at the school door, it is becoming harder for the education sector to justify maintaining small schools, very low student to teacher ratios and standard teacher's workload of less than 16 hours a week. In the immediate aftermath of its independence, Latvia returned to a highly decentralized form of local government. The administration and financing of general education were assigned to the smallest units of government, the pagast. In a country with 2.5 million inhabitants, there are 483 pagasts organized in 26 regions and 7 metropolitan cities. Out of these pagasts, 40 percent have less than 1,000 inhabitants, and 46 percent has between 1,000 and 2,000 inhabitants. The Latvian government is a direct provider of educational services on a large scale. At the general education level, the government provides 99 percent of education services. In higher education, public education establishments supply education to 87 percent of students. In addition to its direct role in the market for education, the government influences the demand for educational services through the provision of scholarships, grants and living allowances, and student loans, and the regulatory framework it establishes for private and public education.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Thailand Monthly Economic Monitor, October 2025(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-10-22)Fiscal conditions remained stable, with a modest widening of the deficit to 3.1 percent of GDP. New stimulus measures are expected to support short-term demand without breaching the public debt ceiling. Inflation stayed negative, reflecting lower energy and food prices amid subdued domestic demand. The central bank kept the policy rate unchanged, citing limited policy space. Thailand’s growth momentum has slowed further as manufacturing activity and services weakened as projected. Tourism remained subdued, largely due to fewer Chinese visitors. Goods exports also slowed as earlier front-loaded orders faded, particularly in agriculture and industrial goods. The Thai baht depreciated in early October as the US dollar appreciated and the current account turned negative.Publication Housing Subsidies for Refugees(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-01-22)Refugees require assistance for basic needs like housing but local host communities may feel excluded from that assistance, potentially affecting community relations. This study experimentally evaluates the effect of a housing assistance program for Syrian refugees in Jordan on both the recipients and their neighbors. The program offered full rental subsidies and landlord incentives for housing improvements, but saw only moderate uptake, in part due to landlord reluctance. The program improved short-run housing quality and lowered housing expenditures, but did not yield sustained economic benefits, partly due to redistribution of aid. The program unexpectedly led to a deterioration in child socio-emotional well-being, and also strained relations between Jordanian neighbors and refugees. In all, housing subsidies had limited measurable benefits for refugee well-being while worsening social cohesion, highlighting the possible need for alternative forms of aid.Publication Ukraine Country Environmental Analysis(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016-01)The objective of the Country Environmental Analysis (CEA) is to assess the adequacy and performance of the policy, legal, and institutional framework for environmental management in Ukraine, in light of the decentralization process of environmental governance and wider reform objectives, and to provide recommendations to government to address the key gaps identified. Ukraine is the second largest country in Europe and has a population of 43 million, the majority of whom live in urban areas. It is a lower middle income country, with the services, industry and agriculture sectors being main contributors to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Ukraine faces a number of environmental challenges, as identified in its National Environmental Strategy 2020 (NES). Key among these are: air pollution; quality of water resources and land degradation; solid waste management; biodiversity loss; human health issues associated with environmental risk factors; in addition to climate change. The scope of Ukrainian environmental legislation is quite broad and comprehensive (more than 300 legal acts) and covers most areas of environmental protection and natural resources management. However, the environmental legislation faces a number of weaknesses:The environmental legislation is largely declaratory in nature and does not have all the essential enforcement mechanisms for the implementation of legal acts and international agreements; Many of the acts are not coordinated with each other; and Legislation undergoes limited analysis of its impact—for example, no in-depth analysis such as Regulatory Impact Analysis is conducted for proposed pieces of legislation.Publication Digital Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13)All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.Publication Regional Poverty and Inequality Update: Latin America and the Caribbean, October 2025(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-10-23)This brief summarizes recent facts related to poverty and inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) using the latest wave of harmonized household surveys from the Socio-Economic Database for LAC (SEDLAC). This brief was produced by the Poverty Global Practice in the LAC Region of the World Bank.