Poll shows Ukrainians' view of national education improving
More than half of Ukrainians (54.2%) assessed the state of readiness of educational institutions of all levels for the 2025/2026 academic year as completely or rather positively, 28% assessed it as rather or completely negatively, while last year only 44.5% of citizens gave positive assessments.
This is stated in the results of a survey conducted by the Institute of Social and Political Psychology of the National Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of Ukraine together with the Association of Political Psychologists of Ukraine on September 12-20, which were presented at a press conference on the topic "Ukrainian Education on the Scales of Public Opinion: Hopes and Doubts" at the press center of the Interfax-Ukraine agency on Monday.
At the same time, significantly more teachers (71.3%) believe that educational institutions are generally well prepared for the academic year, while 18.1% disagree with this.
Some 45.6% of respondents positively assess the results of students' education during a full-scale war, 40.1% - rather or completely negatively. In the previous two years, the share of those who were inclined to negative assessments of the results of education during the war significantly outweighed the share of those who held the opposite opinion.
At the same time, only 18.6% of respondents believe that the modern Ukrainian education system provides high quality education. 47.4% of respondents assess the quality of Ukrainian education as average and 20.8% as low.
It is noted that Ukrainian society is generally favorable to educational reforms, but the level of awareness about them remains low. 62.5% of respondents generally support the reform, but this indicator is the lowest since 2020. 9.9% disagree with the need for reforms. At the same time, less than 27% of respondents consider themselves sufficiently informed about the reforms that are planned and implemented today in the field of education, more than 56% do not think so. 35.1% of respondents assess the progress of education reform positively, 27% - negatively.
In 2025, for the first time, the share of supporters of the introduction of 12-year schooling (35.5%) almost equaled the share of its opponents (37.2%), because for a long time it remained an extremely unpopular decision.
Some 27.3% of respondents completely or rather agreed that, thanks to the measures taken by the state, this year has become a year without corruption during enrollment in higher education institutions, and 37.7% rather or not at all agreed with this. This distribution of opinions on corruption in education has remained stable for at least the last ten years.
Public opinion remains unformed regarding measures aimed at those who try to obtain a deferral from mobilization by enrolling in higher education institutions (bachelor's, master's, postgraduate studies): about 15% of respondents consider these measures insufficient, about 30% - sufficient, over 26% - excessive. Currently, the share of respondents who completely and rather trust the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine (41.4%) only slightly outweighs the share of those who rather and not at all trust it (37.1%). However, among teaching staff, the positive balance of trust in the ministry is much more pronounced: 59.7% versus 28.7%. At the same time, only 25.5% of respondents trust the head of the ministry, Oksen Lisovyi, to one degree or another, while 28.8% do not trust it. Among educators, the picture is more positive: 46% versus 32.2%.
