In the midst of a full-scale war, the government announces the priority allocation of the budget to defense. However, under the slogans of mobilizing resources for the front, there is a deliberate blocking of any salary increase for teachers. The Cabinet of Ministers actually admitted that the state does not have the funds to increase teachers’ salaries, while at the same time raising them for officials and deputies, without cutting any of their numerous bonus payments. Educators remain in the category of “secondary expenses”, once again finding themselves on the verge of survival. And while the government is explaining why cannot find the necessary funds, the educational system is gradually reaching the point where there is no one to teach the children.
Education minus the teacher: an equation that the government cannot solve
With the beginning of the full-scale war, the education system in Ukraine suffered significant losses: more than 1.7 thousand schools and about 54 thousand teachers were lost. It is worth noting that the process of reducing the school network began even before the war. For example, in the 2020/2021 academic year, the number of schools decreased by 6% (approximately 900 institutions). In the first year after the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022, the reduction was 7%, which was slightly higher than the previous year, despite hostilities and the temporary occupation of some territories. In the 2022/2023 academic year, the rate of decrease in the number of schools slowed to 2.3%, but by September 1, 2024, it increased slightly again to 3%. In general, during the three years of the war, the number of schools decreased by more than 12%, which corresponds to approximately 1.7 thousand institutions.
As for the personnel, the decrease in the number of teachers also began even before the active phase of the war. In the 2020/2021 academic year, the number of teachers decreased by 1%. However, already in the 2021/2022 academic year, against the background of the start of hostilities, the decline reached 7.6%. In 2022/2023, this indicator was another 3%, and in 2023/2024 – 2.3%. Thus, the total decrease in the number of education workers over three years (from September 1, 2021 to September 1, 2024) amounted to about 12.4%, or 54 thousand people. Such a situation did not arise suddenly, and you should not blame everything on him.
Ukrainian education has long lived in a regime of endless reforms, which with each new government receive new slogans, methods and a regulatory framework. However, one thing remains unchanged: the teacher is the poorest and least protected element in this system. For some reason, officials, inventing various reforms, do not understand the fact that in a society where educational work is devalued not only financially, but also morally, any reform is doomed to failure. And no concept, even as ambitious as the New Ukrainian School, will work where the teacher is constantly fighting for survival, having nothing to pay for utilities and medicine.
Official documents in the form of laws, regulations, programs, standards, apparently regular allowances and increases in tariff categories have a very convincing appearance. But this beautiful paper architecture breaks down against the numbers in the bills. In the Ukrainian wage system, especially in the budgetary sphere, conditional “equality” prevails for a long time, which in practice means the absence of fair criteria for assessing the complexity and responsibility of work. The basis of this system is the tariff grid, approved by the Cabinet of Ministers, which determines salaries depending on the qualifications and the nature of the duties performed. However, it has long been out of line with economic realities.
The lowest, first tariff category is estimated at only UAH 3195. And this despite the fact that the minimum wage in Ukraine in 2025 is set at UAH 8,000. The difference is compensated by “pulling” additional payments, but this does not solve the systemic problem: up to and including the 14th tariff category, which is precisely the level that teachers with a higher category have, the actual rate is still lower than the minimum.
To understand the situation, we have the following rates: a teacher with a higher qualification category receives a basic rate of UAH 7,732, and a teacher without a category – about UAH 5,800. The government “surcharge” of 10% to the tariff rate, introduced back in 2017, raises the figures to UAH 8,500 and UAH 6,400, respectively, but this is before taxation. Now let’s compare these numbers with the market. By statistics In 2024, the average salary of a waiter is UAH 20,000, a cashier — UAH 18,500, a security guard — UAH 15,000, a cleaner — UAH 12,000. These professions do not require a higher education, do not require daily hours of self-training, checking work, participation in webinars and advanced training courses.
As a result, a young specialist who invested 5-6 years of his life in his education is faced with a reality where his income is 2-3 times less than that of representatives of physical labor without a specialty. He is promised that over the years the situation will change, but only on the condition that he works above the norm, endures a load of time and a half and waits for decades. In such conditions, those who can afford to work “for the soul” remain in schools – often thanks to the financial support of the family or because they are approaching retirement age. In other words, young and qualified specialists simply do not stay in a system that does not guarantee even elementary financial security.
The problem, however, is not only teacher poverty. It is that society no longer sees authority in the teaching profession. Parents who earn one and a half to two times more, working as security guards, cleaners or cashiers, despise the teacher who, even with a good education, was never able to “take his place under the sun”. The school has long resembled a social care center, where the child should be occupied while the adults are busy with “real” work. And this disdain becomes systemic, because the state itself officially, through resolutions that contradict the laws, establishes it.
Article 61 of the Law “On Education” explicitly stipulates that the salary of the lowest category teacher should be three minimum wages. In 2025, it will be UAH 24,000. In reality, a teacher without a category receives UAH 5,800–6,400 before taxation. The obvious difference is a direct proof that even the fundamental norms of the legislation are not being followed. The Ministry of Education and Science is used to “explaining” why now is not the time. But this “now” has been going on for decades, and therefore these explanations lose all meaning.
As we can see, the reform without funding turns into an imitation of the process, the purpose of which is only to demonstrate activity without changing anything in the foundation. That is why we have beautiful standards, new approaches, integrated programs, digital diaries, and a tired teacher who works through another mandatory webinar every night to explain to the children again tomorrow why it all “makes sense.” And while they still come to work, the system rests on people, not politicians.
It is obvious that without a radical revision of approaches to teachers’ remuneration, the entire system of school education in Ukraine will turn into a utopia. When young people refuse to enter pedagogical universities, and current specialists leave or resign, it is worth admitting the obvious fact that the Ministry of Education and Science (MES) does not respect and value education and is not capable of effectively reforming education, and the labor market easily destroys it. You can plan as much as you want for the standards of the 2030s or 2040s, but these plans are already missing the main thing – those who should implement them. And if the state does not immediately turn its face to education, then we will face the next decade without teachers.
State apparatus on salary Olympus: who pays officials when the country saves on teachers
While the budgetary sphere in Ukraine is teetering on the edge of survival, and teachers lack funds for adequate salaries, as officials claim, the state apparatus continues to demonstrate relative financial “stability”, which is difficult to explain by the country’s needs in conditions of war and a general shortage of resources.
For data According to the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine, the average salary in central executive bodies in 2025 is 51,400. UAH This is 7 thousand more than a year ago, and almost four times more than the average income of a school teacher with a higher category. Such a gap in wages has become a chronic marker of the state’s personnel policy, in which dedication to public service is evaluated not by contribution, but by status.
The leader in terms of average salary was the National Energy and Utilities Regulatory Commission (NKREKP), where 532 employees receive an average of 90,100. UAH per month. The head of this body has an even more impressive indicator — 294.3 thousand. UAH, or more than 350% of the average salary in the country.
In second place is the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (NACP) with an average salary of 79,400. hryvnias, while the salary of the head of the NAKC is UAH 243,200. UAH For comparison, this amount is equal to the annual salary of an average public school teacher. The irony is that NAZK, which was created to monitor income transparency, was on the list of record holders for labor costs.
Third on the list is the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine, whose employees receive an average of 77.4 thousand. UAH Against this background, the salary of a specialist in geodesy or children’s affairs looks grotesque — 28-35 thousand. UAH, which is one and a half to two times less.
A special place is occupied by the newly created Ministry of National Unity, whose head’s salary is 401.4 thousand. UAH That’s almost 50 minimum pensions or more than 40 elementary school teacher salaries. The abstractness of the department itself and the lack of clear socially significant results only increase the feeling of disproportion.
System anomaly: why pay more?
At first glance, high salaries in the state apparatus could be explained by competition with the private sector or the responsibility of the positions. However, even a cursory analysis proves otherwise: in the vast majority of cases, high payments do not correlate with the efficiency or transparency of the work of the bodies. It is worth noting that most structures with the highest salaries work in the field of regulatory or supervisory regulation, and not in sectors that directly produce public good, i.e. education, medicine, science, culture. As a result, a paradoxical situation is formed, when the state machine, which should be a service, receives priority in resources over those who ensure the basic viability of society every day.
As you can see, the state has done everything to ensure that in 2025, teachers in Ukraine will be in the status of “second-rate public servants”, to whom the government cannot guarantee even compliance with the norms of current laws regarding remuneration. At the same time, hundreds of millions of hryvnias are somehow magically used to maintain the central state apparatus every month, part of which goes to “market compensation” for personnel who, unlike educators, do not have direct contact with the reality of the majority of Ukrainians.
It is obvious that this is not just a social injustice, but a systematic devaluation of the principles of service, efficiency and priority of public tasks. And if such priorities are not changed, the country risks finally losing not only the personnel reserve in key areas, but also the remnants of trust in the very concept of “public service”.
A teacher abroad is a professional, and in Ukraine he is a survivor
In Finland, teachers are perceived as a valuable national resource. In Germany, he is a representative of the elite of the public sector. In Canada, the teaching profession is one of the most respected, which requires a difficult competitive selection and provides a stable middle-class life. In South Korea, teachers are the epitome of authority. While in Ukraine, a teacher survives, pulls, lives on enthusiasm and coffee, and in the eyes of many parents is the embodiment of a loser. And here the numbers speak better than any emotions.
So, for example, in Germany, the average salary of a teacher is between 4,000 and 5,500 euros per month, depending on the country, experience and level of education.
In Finland, the salary of a teacher varies from 3,500 to 4,200 euros and tends to increase over the years. In France, teachers earn around €2,800-€3,500 per month, and that’s in public schools. In Poland, a young teacher receives 1,200-1,500 euros, and an experienced one – up to 2,000 euros. In the Czech Republic, teachers are paid 1,400–2,000 euros, and this is after taxes. Against the background of such salaries, a Ukrainian teacher of the highest category, working full-time, receives less than 8,500 hryvnias before taxes, which is less than 200 euros. Compared to a cleaning lady who receives UAH 12,000 for her work, a teacher looks like a real beggar.
That is, in Europe, the teacher is respected and valued by the state, as a highly educated, qualified, well-paid specialist who does not think about where to get money for a winter coat or whose expense it is to print workbooks for the class. In Ukraine, teachers, even with two higher educations, experience and a portfolio with self-made didactic materials, do not have any confidence in their future.
The labor market in developed countries evaluates a teacher not according to the vague and loud criteria of “vocation”, but according to clear characteristics: the complexity of the work, the impact on future generations, the need for constant professional development, workload, responsibility. This is a profession that forms the basis of the nation’s human capital. In Ukraine, the teacher acts as a kind of budgetary unit, which must be “optimized”, “brought up to standards”, “maintained within the limits of educational subvention”.
When young people in Europe choose a career in education, they understand all the complexity of this profession, but at the same time they also have the confidence to earn money for such a workload. While the Ukrainian government continues to appeal to war, lack of resources and the “necessity of redistribution”, the education system is slowly but surely sliding to the point of no return. And this situation has always existed, even before the war. There is always a shortage of funds for teachers. When the state pays a teacher less than a garbage truck driver, it openly declares that knowledge in the country is worthless. Education is only a convention in the form of a paper-diploma, which is of no use.
Meanwhile, in the Ukrainian school, the teacher is more and more reminiscent of Don Quixote – a noble but tired traveler who continues to fight against the windmills of the educational system. Armed not with a spear, but with pointers, manuals, endless webinars and paper reports, he goes to class every day as if on another march for justice, hoping that the world will recognize the importance of his mission. But instead of the faithful Sancho Panza, he gets electronic magazines, instead of the lady of the heart, he has a faded portrait of the “New Ukrainian School”, and instead of state support, he receives meager allowances, which are barely enough to pay for utilities. And while officials report on “successful reforms”, our educational Don Quixote returns to the classroom every morning not because he believes in the system, but because he still believes in children. But even the most loyal knights need not only an ideal, but also support in the form of a decent salary. Because even dreams cannot withstand constant devaluation.
The absence of salary increases for teachers in the near future means a gradual loss of qualified personnel, especially in regions where the educational infrastructure is already on the verge of functioning. Young specialists do not choose a profession that does not guarantee elementary financial stability. Experienced workers move to other areas or leave the system.
In the medium term, this will lead to a chronic shortage of teachers, a decrease in the quality of the educational process, and further marginalization of school education. The state is gradually losing control over the reproduction of skilled labor. In other words, the decision, which today looks like a forced compromise, lays down long-term risks for the functioning of education as an area critically important for post-war recovery. Therefore, the government should remember: a country without teachers is a country without a future with a degraded society.
