The closest school
in the district

By: Yaroslava Tymoshchuk, 
Nadya Kelm, 
Mykola Dobysh

96 parents (both moms and dads) play in a kind of lottery. Their prize depends on a piece of paper with portrait of Ivan Bahrianyi (Ukrainian 20th century writer), who Kyiv public school #148 is named after. The lower the number on the paper is – the more chances they get. One pregnant mom pulls out a piece of paper with number 1 and hits the jackpot – she’s just won the guaranteed school enrollment not only for her son this year. In 6 or 7 years his future brother or sister will go to this public school as well. Only those kids who are registered by the addresses in this school zone, or whose parents work in this school, or whose older brothers and sisters already study here can be enrolled. The others must test fortune. New system of the 1st grade enrollment is considered to be fairer than the previous one. But not every is ready to study in these “egalitarian” schools.

Previously parents had to strive really hard in order to enroll their kid into one of so called “prestigious” schools in Kyiv. 6 year old child was forced to compete as an adult in various testing and interviews.

New admission system is simple – kids go to school according to their residency – no more problems with enrollment. But new problem emerges – there are just not enough schools in newly built residential areas. The developers did not have to worry about building the schools proportionally to the apartments built and sold, because parents could enroll their kids into schools somewhere else. Now this opportunity has shrunk essentially. Tetyana Podolyan, specialist from the local education department of Solomyanskyy district of Kyiv, tells us about the recent case when parents purchased the apartment at a certain house in this district because of the school zone it was located in - they wanted their daughter to study at the reputable public gymnasium. So now the developers would be obliged to build the schools if they want to sell the dwellings.

We’ve tried to figure out how the enrollment into the first grade takes place now.

Mom 80 is angry with the fact that the lottery numbers counted all the parents – even those who had not shown up

Mom 2 is one of the luckiest today, but still she finds it strange that her child’s future depends on the lottery.

Mom 1, the pregnant one, comes up to pull out the lotto ticket together with her son who is a future first grader – and everyone applauses to them, because they are the first ones out of 96 applicants.

Mom 77 did not even hope for the luck – she did not expect much in life ever since she had left the occupied Donbas area with her son, then a kindergarten pupil.

Mom 80 is angry with the fact that the lottery numbers counted all the parents – even those who had not shown up.

The smaller the number is the more chances one has. Lottery day at public school #148, around 3 minutes distance walk from Darnytsia subway station, has become a hot one.

Those who have not been enrolled in a first place(the ones from the addresses attached to this school, whose parents work in it or whose brothers and sisters already study here) could claim for vacant places left. In total 97 applicants pretended for 4 school places according to applications written by their parents. Therefore it is necessary to draw the lots out from a transparent box.

While the lottery procedure precedes school Principal Serhiy Horbachov announces that the number of vacant places has grown and that all the lots numbers up to 40 will be enrolled. To avoid re-drawing the lots parents book themselves a place in a queue in accordance with the numbers they've already got.

The lottery itself is an idea of Serhiy Horbachov. He finds this method to be far from an ideal one, but all the rest considered (in accordance with the dates of birth, or by the order of applications submissions, or competitive based selection) were even worse due to high corruption risks.

Horbachev has also come up with the idea how to check the parents who could bring fake documents, such as lease contracts, to fool new system of admission and to get into desired school.

Parents have to provide a legal document of their residency in order to prove their child’s right to attend the certain school. This document may be a registration stamp (in special certificate), a lease contract, document certifying their IDP (internally displaced person) status or their estate ownership document.

Some real estate agencies offered their “assistance” with documents needed for school admission

Thus some real estate agencies offered their “assistance” with documents needed for school admission in Kyiv. One could have bought a fake lease contract or residential certificate with registration stamp in it. Only school principal had the right to control the authenticity of these documents.

School #148, where Serhiy Horbachev serves as a principal, had twice more applications than it could admit first graders. So the Principal had to be attentive.

First of all at pre-school meeting with parents in April he warned them not to cheat. When the time of documents admission started he checked the authenticity of the documents himself. The simplest way to do it was to ask the neighbors whether such family really lived at provided address.

Serhiy Horbachev worries not only about his school – he is also a member of the group that worked out the new admission rules. The changes cancelled the interviews for pre-schoolers which used to be a common practice and often were used, as Horbachev admits, to hide the unfair “market” schemes for admission in exchange of so called “donations”. The kids are treated more equally now, because they are guaranteed with a place at the nearest public school. The schools do not have to “select” anymore.

Even when the interviews were fair and transparent they still could not be good criteria, Horbahev thinks. Within 20-25 minutes it is practically impossible to find out whether the child is ready for the school. Besides that a six year old kid can be stressed or not willing to talk to a stranger, and not every school psychologist can perform the evaluation professionally enough in such delicate circumstances.

Another common practice used previously to get enrolled was special “school preparation courses” – some of them really taught children and some just trained the “correct answers” for future interview. Almost a half of Kyiv schools enrolled their first graders after such courses with no regard to child’s residency.

To attach certain houses with its addresses to the schools one had to know the number of the kids living in these houses. Till now no one has had any idea about how many first graders this or that school would get. Only after parents submitted their applications to the school this number could had been figured out.

This year for the first time schools get actual data from a special register about the number of the kids planning to attend the first grade. Now it is quite simple for the parents – all they have to do is to fulfill an application at “their” school, which would be checked by the school principal at the register. If all the data is correct – it’s done, the child is enrolled.

The register is being regularly updated. The principals have to fill in the new data about new kids. The updated register will help to determine school zones more precisely next year.

This year in January when the creation of the school zones in accordance with new admission rules started it figured out that there was a gap in data. Some school areas contained the whole streets that no longer existed and some of newly built houses still were invisible at the system.

In order to distribute the addresses correctly between the schools the specialists from local education departments had to traverse the districts by feet, because the old database could not be trusted.

The time needed to get to school from a certain address as well as any difficulties that might occur were also taken into account. For example if it was necessary for the child to cross the road on her or his way to a certain school, and there was an alternative way to walk only through the sidewalks to get to another school – the house is to be attached to the latter.

In August-September each school has to announce how many first year classes it can provide in school year of 2019-2020. Thus the children will be distributed between the schools in accordance with the school zones. Who will attend what school would be figured out later – approximately six months prior before the next academic year. It means that in March parents can submit their applications and the principals can start checking the details of the documents provided.

An interactive map of Kyiv public schools and the addresses attached to them. In our newsroom we’ve made an assumption that the schools with higher EIT (External Independent Testing) results have lobbied fewer addresses to be assigned to their zones. Thus they had some “space for maneuvering” left and could select their future students. To see what schools that enroll first graders have been ranked among TOP-30 in EIT score ranking please click “Best Schools” button. To check the addresses and the school zones they are attached to please enlarge the map.