1. EDUCATION
2. EDUCATION POLICY
3. SOCIAL WELFARE
4. SOCIAL WELFARE POLICY

The following contains some information about energy production, the transportation network, and communications and media in Ukraine. It draws extensively on material from publications published by the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund and from the Handbook of International Economic Statistics, 1993 published by the Central Intelligence Agency.

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Updated 12/9/96

The reversal of perceived 'Russification' of the education system was one of the principal demands of the opposition movements which emerged in the late 1980s. In the period 1980-88 the proportion of pupils who were taught in Russian increased from 44.5% to 51.8%, while the proportion taught in Ukrainian decreased from 54.6% to 47.5%. After Ukrainian was adopted as the state language, in 1990, policies were adopted to ensure that all pupils were granted the opportunity of tuition in Ukrainian.

In 1988 there was also tuition in Romanian (0.6% of all school pupils), Hungarian (0.3%) and a small number of pupils were taught in Polish. In the early 1990s there were significant changes to the curriculum, with more emphasis on Ukrainian history and literature. Some religious and private educational institutions were established in 1990-91, including a private university, the Kiev Mohyla Academy, which had been one of Europe's leading educational establishments before 1917.

During the Soviet period a comprehensive state-funded social welfare system was introuced. In 1991, with the progressive devolution of centralized Soviet ower, followed by Ukraine's declaration of independence (in August), certain changes were made in the system. These included the creation of three extrabudgetary funds -- the Pension Fund, the Social Insurance Fund and the Employment Fund -- which were to administer most of Ukraine's social security activities, while an extensive program of family allowances and compensation for price increases was to be directly financed by the state budget.

Additional information: the compulsory retirement age in Ukraine is 55 years for women and 60 years for men; in the early 1990s about 25% of the population was receiving a pension.

For more detailed information please see the following items located at this website:
World Bank Study of Ukrainian Healthcare
Ukrainian Healthcare Industry Overview (1993)