Presentation by Jan Herczyński (24.04.2015) "Key problems of allocation of education responsibilities" At the Seminar on Elaboration of the New Framework Law on Education in Ukraine by SALAR/SKL International Project Support to Decentralization in Ukraine

1. Key problems of allocation of
education responsibilities
Jan Herczyński
SKL Project
„Support to Decentralization in Ukraine”
Kiev, April 24, 2015

2. Decentralization of education
• As Ukraine approaches far-reaching
decentralization of education, key decisions
need to be taken regarding which level of local
administration should be assigned the
responsibility for managing and financing which
types of schools
• These decisions are important not only for
education, but also for future development and
functioning of Ukrainian local governments

3. Simple formulation of the problem
The simplest formulation of the problem is the
following:
• A list of all education institutions should be
identified
• A list of all levels of local governments in
Ukraine should be identified
• Each education institution should be assigned
to a specific level of governance

4. Education institutions
The following list represents the most important
education institutions:
• Preschools,
• Initial schools (1-4),
• Basic schools (1-9)
• Full secondary schools
• Vocational and professional schools

5. Levels of local government
However, the identification of levels of local
governments is very difficult, due to ongoing
territorial-administrative reforms:
• Rural councils (over 12 thousand)
• Rayons (about 500)
• Cities of oblast significance (about 115)
• Oblasts (25)

6. Basic principles
The following principle are often stated as the
basis for allocation of responsibilities:
• The territory of administration unit
responsible for a specific function should
correspond to the area of service provision
• The administrative unit responsible for a
specific function should have the capacities,
human resources and budget required for that
function

7. How to apply these principles?
In Ukraine, application of both principles
encounters problems:
• As the types of schools range between 1-5 and
1-11, their area of service may be quite
different,
• Rural councils are very small, very weak and
are considered incompetent
• Rayons and oblasts are not real local
governments

8. Solution of the Budget Code
These problems were addressed in the
amendments to Budget Code in December
2014:
• Both preschools and schools are financed
froim rayon budget
• If rural councils amalgamet to created „unified
gromadas”, they can take over education
functions

9. Solution of the Budget Code 2
This is a highly pragmatic and workable solution:
• Rayon education departments, although not
real local government offices, have the
experience, information and capacities to
manage schools,
• Education subvention is sent directly to their
budgets
• Open way for further decentralization in the
future

10. Solution of the Budget Code 3
However, solution of the Budget Code are also
problematic:
• Preschools are managed by administrative
unit much larger that area of service provision
• Vocational andf professional schools have
remained at oblast level
• Further territorial-adiministrative reforms may
change the situation radically

11. Main areas of uncertainty
• Not known how many consolidated gromadas
will be created or what will be their legal and
budget situation
• Not know how many rayons will be
consolidated or what will be their legal and
budget situation
• Not known if changes to Constitution will
make rayons into real local governments

12. Options of new Law on Education
General assumptions:
• We should not trust that gromadas will quickly
become larger, stronger local govervnments
• Future consolidation of rayons is not very
likely
• Rayons will become real local governments
Therefore the new Law on Education should
assume that current structure of local
governance will in general remain

13. Options for new Law on Education 2
Therefore it seems reasonable to propose:
• Preschools should be managed and financed
by rayons, with an option to delegate them to
stronger gromadas
• General secondary schools should be
managed and financed by rayons
• Most education institutions managed and
financed by oblasts (including PTU) should be
moved to rayon level

14. Options for new Law on Education 3
This proposal has clear weaknesses:
• It assignes almost all education functions to
one level of governance
– But: other two levels of governance are even less
suitable for education
• Preschools are managed by too large units
– But: proper gromadas still do not exist

15. Thank you for your attention!
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