The Polaris Programme held a webinar “Changes to the Calculation of the Education Subvention and Teachers’ Pay Conditions from September 2026”. Around 200 participants joined the event, including heads and specialists of local education authorities, school principals, economists and accountants.
The webinar focused on the practical application of new approaches to teachers’ pay and the calculation of the education subvention, which have been in effect since 1 September 2026.
Anastasiia Sofiienko, Deputy Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine, answered participants’ specific questions and discussed situations that are already arising as the new rules are implemented at the local level.
In particular, participants examined in detail changes to the formula for distributing the education subvention. Since 1 September, all curriculum hours have once again been included in the calculation, while the estimated class size for primary schools may now not exceed 24 pupils.
“This provides substantial additional financial resources for local budgets. Therefore, the education subvention should be sufficient to ensure that teachers’ salary increases are paid in full and on time,” Anastasiia Sofiienko said.
Another section focused on the new pay conditions in preschool and extracurricular education. For institutions financed from local budgets, the transition to the new mechanism depends on decisions by local self-government bodies and the financial capacity of the hromada.
Participants also discussed funding for schools with small numbers of pupils, the use of up-to-date data on the education network when calculating the subvention, specific aspects of financing family-based and external forms of education, pedagogical patronage, pay in academic lyceums, and opportunities to combine positions.
The webinar continued Polaris’ ongoing work with the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine to improve school education funding mechanisms and their practical application in hromadas. At the end of August, these issues were also addressed during a two-day Polaris working seminar in Lviv, attended by representatives of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine, the State Service of Education Quality of Ukraine, and the Institute of Educational Analytics. The seminar focused primarily on approaches to distributing the education subvention in 2027.
