Ukrainian schools are experiencing a severe shortage of young educators, yet the state currently lacks the capacity to increase teachers’ salaries due to financial constraints related to the full-scale war.
This is reported by Finway
Staff Shortages in Schools: Causes and Consequences
According to the head of the parliamentary committee on education, science, and innovation, Serhiy Babak, the staffing situation in higher education institutions remains stable, but schools are lacking specialists, particularly in natural sciences such as physics, chemistry, and biology. The main issue is the lack of influx of young professionals into school education, which threatens the quality of the educational process in the future.
“But the most pressing issue is not even this. Young teachers are hardly coming in. This is a real problem. And its solution is very simple – salary. The state can talk as much as it wants about prestige, motivation, and mission, but as long as a young specialist does not see the prospect of stable and decent earnings — they simply do not come to school,” stated the MP.
Legislative Norms and Budgetary Constraints
The current law on education and the law on complete general secondary education stipulate that the minimum salary for a teacher should be no less than three minimum wages. Despite the fact that the Verkhovna Rada has supported these requirements, the implementation of this norm is postponed every year during the adoption of the state budget. The reasons for this situation are related to the country’s insufficient financial capacity, particularly under martial law conditions.
Serhiy Babak emphasizes that without raising salaries, it is impossible to attract young, motivated professionals to work in schools. In his opinion, decent pay could be the key incentive for young people to choose the teaching profession.