Guarantees for funding of vocational education in Ukraine should be fixed at the legislative level. A member of the Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on Science and Education, MP from UKROP Iryna Konstankevych, has stated it on the air of the parliamentary TV channel “Rada”.
“In 2018, it is planned to shift financing of vocational education to the local level. This means that there are no funds for it in the state budget. We, the representatives of UKROP, strongly disagree and consider that it is necessary to defend financing of vocational education at the state level,” said the MP.
According to her, an absolute majority of local budgets will not be able to hold vocational schools, which means their closure.
Iryna Konstankevych has also reminded that due to the lack of funding about 40 of such establishments were already closed last year. And only during the years of independence their number has decreased almost twice. Therefore, according to the representative of UKROP, the transfer of funding to the regions will result in even greater personnel of workers’ professions deficiency throughout Ukraine.
At the same time, she has stressed that UKROP supports position of the Ministry of Education and Science that funding for vocational education should be priority for the government.
In order to consolidate the guarantees for vocational education at the legislative level, the MPs from UKROP are working on the preparation of the basic draft law on vocational education.
“We have developed a plan of actions for the nearest future and we will submit this bill as soon as possible for discussion at the committee meeting in order to submit a document to the parliamentary hall in October,” said the MP.
Earlier, Iryna Konstankevich made a proposal to include the issue of financing vocational education in the draft state budget for 2018. The corresponding deputy’s inquiry was directed by the politician to the Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman.
In addition, the representative of UKROP has proposed to consider additional subventions to ensure that vocational education institutions do not accumulate debts on energy payments and ensure proper heating by the end of the year.
