Only 30% of Ukrainian schools are equipped with generators, Cabinet of Ministers is not going to allocate funds for fuel supply - Siumar
Schools that have generators will be provided with fuel by local governments, not the central government.
This was reported on Facebook by "European Solidarity" MP Viktoriia Siumar, Censor.NET informs.
Today, the Rada held an hour of questions to the Government, during which the Minister of Education Oksen Lisovyi spoke.
"I asked a question that seems to me to be one of the most strategic and important today: what is the government doing to prevent a new wave of refugees in the autumn? Because if the educational process is not ensured, mothers with children will simply have to leave the country so that their children do not freeze in schools and can study," the MP said.
The head of the Ministry of Education and Science said that universities and vocational schools would start the academic year earlier, i.e. before 1 September. Winter holidays will be as long as possible. The second semester will be extended, meaning it may end as late as next July.
"Only 30% of Ukrainian schools are equipped with generators. And not even fully: in some of them, only the invincibility points are powered, which means only charging and hot tea... The government is not going to allocate funds to provide fuel for these existing generators. This will be the responsibility of local governments, the minister said. "No one has yet calculated whether they have enough taxes and funds to cover such a costly part as fuel for generators for educational institutions and critical infrastructure. And this is a problem," said Siumar.
The minister also said that schools would not start classes earlier and would start working from 1 September. However, it is likely that some of the education will have to be transferred online again.
"At the same time, no one knows how to provide teachers and students with uninterrupted internet access in the face of blackouts. It seems that parents themselves must take care to have uninterrupted power supplies at least at home for studying... I think that under such conditions, the outflow of people from the country looks more than real. And this will definitely again affect the labour market, which is in need of workers today, and the shrinking of the market and the deepening of the demographic crisis," said the EU MP.
"When asked what the government was doing to address the demographic catastrophe, Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said that 10 to 15 thousand Ukrainians had been retrained at employment centres...
"I will not comment on this, but obviously we are already facing the need to set the foundations of immigration policy for the country: who we want to see on the Ukrainian labour market against the backdrop of the outflow of Ukrainians and the need to attract Ukrainian men to the Armed Forces. People are not just important. People decide everything: the fate of this war and what Ukraine will be like after it. And we need to think about this now. At least about how to avoid losing several million more Ukrainian women with children," summed up Siumar.
