As part of the high school reform, lyceums will transition from traditional classes to specialized groups
Starting in September 2026, 150 Ukrainian lyceums will begin operating under a new educational model, in which a student’s choice of specialization will no longer be tied to a specific grade level. Instead, schools will form specialized groups based on students’ interests and academic tracks.
The model in which the entire 10-A class studies the same specialization is becoming obsolete. Instead, the main tool will be rotating groups formed based on the students’ own choices. If there are at least eight students in a parallel class who wish to study a specific subject in depth, the lyceum is required to form such a group.
Students from different classes will be able to form flexible groups specifically for specialized subjects, while the “core” class will be reserved solely for general education subjects and the schedule.
The government is lowering the threshold for opening a specialization track to eight students in order to eliminate “paper” classes, where most students are not actually interested in the subject. Now, lyceums will be able to offer various specializations—IT, biochemistry, law, and others—even with a small number of interested students, by grouping students from across the entire grade level.
It is important for lyceum administrations to distinguish between two levels of selection:
- competitive admission to the lyceum—held only when the number of applicants exceeds the school’s capacity;
- selection for a specialization track—an internal allocation of students if space in a specific lab or specialized class is limited.
To avoid chaos during the allocation process, students will list several specializations in order of priority. If a group cannot be formed for the chosen specialization or there are not enough spots in the lab, the student will automatically be assigned to the next specialization on their list.
Deputy Minister of Education and Science Nadiya Kuzmichova emphasized that school administrations must begin preparing for the new management model today.
“For high school administrations, this means they need to plan the network of specializations, teaching loads, classroom usage, and scheduling in a new way. However, it is precisely this model that makes it possible to ensure genuine specialization even where student numbers do not allow for the opening of separate specialized classes,” the official stated.
According to her, the transition requires not just cosmetic changes, but an analysis of the school’s staffing and technical capacity. Lyceum administrators are already being advised to:
- analyze the specialized subject preferences of ninth-grade students;
- assess the readiness of laboratories to work with rotating groups;
- explore opportunities offered by international projects (in particular, DECIDE) to model effective networks.
At the same time, the government is funding the infrastructure for the reform. In 2026, 130 future specialized academic lyceums in 22 regions of Ukraine will receive funding to establish STEM labs, natural science classrooms, and modern educational equipment. These are institutions that will become part of the specialized high school network starting in 2027.
The government has already allocated over 459 million UAH to the first 85 institutions; the remaining 45 institutions will receive funding in the near future. Local communities will be able to purchase equipment, multimedia resources, and furniture. In total, 3.2 billion hryvnias have been allocated this year to upgrade educational spaces—for pilot lyceums, gymnasiums, and future academic lyceums.
“Upgrading school infrastructure is one of the key areas of the New Ukrainian School reform, aimed at creating conditions for high-quality learning and the acquisition of practical skills. We are also updating the content of educational programs and creating opportunities for the professional development of teachers,” said Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko.
Source: Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine.
Earlier, the Ukrainian Center for Educational Quality Assessment commented on the situation in the Odesa region, where participants in the National Multidisciplinary Test spent nearly 13 hours at the testing center due to prolonged air raid alerts. According to the ministry, graduates were offered the option to reschedule the exam for an additional session, but they refused and decided to wait until the testing was completed and take the NMT that same day.
An alternative bill to change the format of the National Multisubject Test (NMT) has been registered in the Verkhovna Rada. The bill proposes reducing the number of subjects to be tested from four to three. In this case, mathematics would be an elective subject.
