About 20% of Ukrainian schoolchildren did not receive textbooks

The Verkhovna Rada Committee responsible for education has negatively assessed the actions of the Ministry of Education and Science in providing schools with new textbooks. As of September 15, every fifth book (18.3%) of the planned ones had not reached students, the head of the committee, Serhiy Babak, noted in his Telegram channel.

He emphasized that this year, part of the textbook delivery to schools was carried out according to a new scheme, which involved direct deliveries from publishers and cost an additional 8 million hryvnias. This method, known as the “accelerated algorithm”, was chosen to solve the problem with the supply of books.

“Last year, the Ministry of Education and Science launched the IKOM system for prompt delivery. But was it really effective? Statistics indicate the opposite,” Babak said.

As of mid-September, schools had not received a complete set of textbooks for eighth grades as part of the New Ukrainian School program. In total, it was planned to purchase 8.7 million copies, but in some communities, in particular in eastern Ukraine, some books were not delivered at all.

In addition, in 2024, about 312 thousand books for children with special educational needs and 30 thousand textbooks in Braille for students with visual impairments were to be printed. However, books printed in Braille have not reached schools at all. The deputy emphasized that, despite the budget funds, some contracts for printing textbooks have not yet been concluded.

“We return to the topic of textbook delivery every quarter, discuss emerging problems, and look for solutions. But the results remain unchanged – by the beginning of the school year, schools do not receive all the necessary materials,” Babak noted.

Following the meeting, the committee ordered the Ministry of Education to provide a report on the effectiveness of the new delivery system, prepare an action plan for the next academic year to avoid disruptions in school supplies, and inform the committee monthly about the number of copies received.