Education Ombudsman asks Odesa city, regional authorities whether holding NMT in shelters considered
KYIV. June 10 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Education Ombudsman of Ukraine Nadiia Leshchyk has requested information from the authorities of Odesa and Odesa region on whether the possibility of conducting the National Multi-Subject Test (NMT) directly in shelters was considered.
"Odesa is one of the cities frequently subjected to shelling. Therefore, the regional administration, together with the responsible local authorities, should have, in accordance with their duties, ensured the organization of the NMT in shelters in most cases. After all, there are enough spaces in educational institution shelters that could be equipped with computer workstations," Leshchyk said on Facebook.
In this regard, to clarify the circumstances surrounding the planning and organization of the 2026 NMT, the Education Ombudsman sent an inquiry to the Odesa Regional State Administration and the Acting Mayor of Odesa, requesting confirmation of whether the option of holding the NMT in shelters had been evaluated.
"In the aforementioned inquiry, I also requested information regarding the specific reasons why conducting the NMT directly in shelters was not planned. Additionally, I asked them to specify exactly what legal, organizational, technical, safety, material-technical, or other circumstances prevented or made it impossible to organize the NMT in shelters, and what measures were envisioned to ensure the safety of testing participants during air raid alerts or other threats to their life and health," she has said.
Earlier on Wednesday, Director of the Ukrainian Center for Educational Quality Assessment (UCEQA) Tetiana Vakulenko has said that only a third of the temporary examination centers (TECs) in Odesa region are located within shelters.
As previously reported, Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets stated that on June 8, the administration of the NMT in Odesa Oblast was disrupted due to an air raid alert, forcing children to remain in shelters for nearly 13 hours.
At the same time, Education Ombudsman Nadiia Leshchyk has said that it is currently impossible to accommodate absolutely all NMT participants in Odesa within shelters, but emphasized that solutions must be devised for the 2027 session.
The Ministry of Education and Science has said that participants of the NMT session disrupted by the prolonged air raid alert in Odesa region had been offered the option to submit an application to take part in the additional testing session, but the majority insisted on continuing the exam.