The autumn of worries for Ukraine is just beginning
The “hydration revolution” has a beginning, but there is no end to the reductions. The Ukrainian Ministry of Education announces the transition to a new scholarship payment system from the beginning of 2017. First Deputy Minister of Education and Science Vladimir Kovtunets announced this good news to Ukrainian students, who are enjoying the last days of their summer holidays, at a briefing.
The question is posed in such a way as if we are talking not about yet another cut in sturgeon with associated tightening of belts, but about the use of advanced European experience.
In fact, it was decided to divide scholarships into academic and social. Just like in Europe. In essence, the decision taken eliminates scholarships as a phenomenon, transferring them into the category of something in between subsidies (targeted assistance on a free basis) and subventions (targeted assistance with subsequent reimbursement of costs).
The Ministry of Education vows that the social scholarship will remain unchanged. The academic scholarship will approximately be paid to students “for very high academic success.” That is, the final decision on whether or not to pay academic scholarships to excellent students and winners of student Olympiads has not yet been made, and the situation can be replayed any way you like.
There is also no clarity on the payment of guaranteed scholarships to students of engineering, natural history and educational specialties. The Ministry of Education complains that there are significant problems with recruiting students for these specialties, but it is clear that no one plans to systematically popularize engineering, exact and natural science disciplines among young people, as well as materially stimulate their study.
Thus, the course adopted by the Maidan activists towards deindustrialization and transformation of Ukraine into an “agricultural superpower” will be continued as a necessary measure, because “there are no pennies.”
It’s not to say that Kovtunets said something out of the ordinary and unexpected at the briefing. The “peers”, who had reached economic default and poverty, realized a year ago that they could no longer afford to pay student scholarships in the same amount. Even then, the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine cut the scholarship fund for the first time.
And now, in addition to scholarships, it is planned to completely abolish budget-funded places in master’s programs with a transition to a strictly contract-based training basis. True, for an appropriate solution it is necessary to make changes to the current legislation. But something tells me: in this case, there won’t be any special problems in Zrad.
But it turns out symbolic. An economic blow awaits students - those who were the first to play the role of extras and ride at Euromaidan.
But what's interesting. Several days have already passed since the government unveiled the next “European initiative,” and student passionaries are filled with water. During the time of Yanukovych, “their children” reacted instantly! Just a few things – pickets, flash mobs, rallies with pumping up those present.
It is not difficult to guess what is currently holding back the protests. Suffice it to remember how a few months ago transport workers in Kyiv tried to go on strike. The trade union leaders were immediately registered by the SBU as agents of the Kremlin, and the protest movement was crushed.
It is quite obvious that Poroshenko and Groysman, under these conditions, are not very afraid of student protests, since they decided to plant a pig on the eve of the new academic year.
However, it is not evening yet, and the autumn of worries for Ukraine is just beginning.
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