Deputies united six schools, liquidated a gymnasium and a kindergarten in Mykolaiv

An educational class in one of the schools of Mykolaiv, archival photo of NikVesti

In Mykolaiv, six institutions of general secondary education were united, and a gymnasium and a kindergarten were also liquidated.

The corresponding decision was made on May 30 at an online meeting of the session of the Mykolaiv City Council, writes NikVesti.

It is about the unification of lyceums №1 and №58, №5 and №22, as well as the liquidation of primary school №2 due to its joining primary school №1. At the same time, gymnasium №49 and kindergarten №70 were liquidated by this decision.

The unification of lyceums will allow solving the problem of recruiting the required number of high school students, and then — to carry out the reform of the high school, explained the head of the education department of the Mykolaiv City Council, Hanna Lychko.

«Two draft decisions are aimed at uniting four institutions. This is lyceum №1 with lyceum №58 in the Ship District to create a larger number of senior classes and thus distribute the teaching load in such a way that all people have a full rate. The same situation with Lyceum №5 and Lyceum №22. Such a union will allow us to ensure multidisciplinary education during the implementation of the senior school reform in the future,» she said.

At the same time, primary school №2 was joined to primary school №1 due to the small number of children studying there, Hanna Lychko said.

«The number of children there is currently small. These two buildings do not have basements that could be converted into the simplest shelters. On September 1, 96 children are expected in primary school №1, and 87 in primary school №2. However, since face-to-face education is expected to resume from September 1, some children want to switch to this form of education in other educational institutions. That is, the average number of children in the class will be even lower,» she explained.

At the same time, the decision to liquidate gymnasium №49 was made because a small number of children studied there for a long time, and currently the building of the institution has been destroyed as a result of Russian shelling, says the head of the education department.

«This institution is proposed to be liquidated due to the fact that even before the war, about 700 children lived in the territory served by this educational institution, but no more than 200 children studied. Today, only 142 children study there. In addition, in 2022, this building was hit by a rocket and actually has to be rebuilt. Today, there are absolutely no donors to rebuild the institution due to the small number of students,» said Hanna Lychko.

Deputies also supported the liquidation of kindergarten №70.

«There are currently 22 children there. The kindergarten is located in two buildings, one of which has been in a state of disrepair since 2016,» added Hanna Lychko.

Reorganization of schools in Mykolaiv

According to the reform of general secondary education institutions, where there will be senior classes (10-11, and then 12), they will be transformed into lyceums. Only 9th grade children will be taught in gymnasiums. At the same time, there will be significantly fewer lyceums than schools with senior classes. That is, in the part of institutions that become gymnasiums, the 10th and 11th grades are simply liquidated.

Currently, a gradual transition from eleven-year to twelve-year secondary education is underway, and the result of the reform should be education at three levels:

• four-year primary education;

• five-year basic secondary education;

• professional secondary education lasting three years.

By September 1, 2027, the founders must create lyceums, provide them with teaching staff and everything necessary for full functioning.

At the beginning of 2022 , a number of schools in Mykolaiv were officially renamed gymnasiums and lyceums. At the same time, the townspeople were outraged that in some of the schools that became gymnasiums, senior classes were being eliminated. Subsequently, nine more institutions of general secondary education were reorganized into gymnasiums.

The mayor of Mykolaiv Oleksandr Sienkevych believes that the city cannot fully comply with the reform of the Ministry of Education and close the 10-11th grades in all schools that fall under it. He added that Mykolaiv is territorially too large and «stretched» city, therefore the optimization of the network of secondary education institutions here should take place with its own characteristics.

And at the beginning of February 2022, a conflict broke out in Mykolaiv over the reorganization of secondary schools into lyceums and gymnasiums. In particular, representatives of schools №42 and №56 in Inhulskyi district addressed the deputies. The final decision has not been made on these institutions — the new form will be approved by the deputies of the city council. However, the Department of Education intends to submit a draft decision, according to which school №42 will become a lyceum with grades 10-11, and №56 will become a gymnasium. Pedagogical and parental teams of the latter categorically disagree with this and believe that their school is no worse, and in some parameters, in general, is more suitable for the role of a lyceum than 42.

In May 2023, 16 secondary schools of grades I-III in Mykolaiv were renamed gymnasiums.

In order to save budget funds and improve the quality of education in Mykolaiv, it is also planned to liquidate primary school №2 by joining it to primary school №1.

At the same time, the deputies of the city council are offered to liquidate gymnasium №49 in the Ship district of Mykolaiv. In the summer of 2022, a rocket hit the building of the educational institution.