At the briefing in the Parliament, Mykola Tomenko, Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, focused on the situation in the educational sphere. He emphasised that the current policy of the Ministry on Education and Science, Youth and Sports can not but raise serious concerns, since "million of pupils and their parents are held hostages of the uncertain situation in 2011."
M. Tomenko stressed that the Ministry was acting according to a simple scheme: if an academic board elects the rector who is not favored by the ministerial officials, the Minister, due to numerous fictitious reasons, will not appoint him/her to the office. M. Tomenko reminded that rectors in Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk had not started their work yet.
Still, according to the Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, the biggest problem is connected with the system of education itself. He announced that on January 6, 2011, the Ministry on Education and Science, Youth and Sports of Ukraine appealed to the heads of the higher education establishments with the demand to set the rate of admission and graduation for 2011. The Ministry shall reduce the rate of governmental order admission for bachelor qualification level by 42% as compared to 2010,for junior specialist by 10%. Upon completion of the bachelor deegree, the Ministry imposes quotas: total admission for specialist and master qualification level shall comprise not more than 90% of the number of the graduates. 60% shall go for the specialist degree, while 30% - for the master degree, which contradicts the Bologna Convention.
He predicts flourishing of the system when the rectors of universities should visit the Ministry on Education and personally settle the matters concerning the governmental order. "Thus, corruption in the system of governmental order returns to the sphere of education", M. Tomenko stressed.
Mykola Tomenko believes that external independent testing is under the threat, as the testing can no longer be regarded as independent after the latest staff changes in the Ukrainian Center of Education Quality.
M. Tomenko is surprised by the decision of the Ministry on Education to set up the National Scientific-Research Institute of Ukrainian Culture and World History under the Ministry on Education. M. Tomenko deems inadmissible to set up the institutes under the Ministry on Education from the political motives, as such establishments shall remain in the system of the National Academy of Science.
Summing up, M. Tomenko declared that the Parliament shall listen to the report of the Minister of Education and receive necessary information concerning the future of students and pupils in the next academic year.