Minister of Education and Science Andriy Butenko says that several approaches to changing the national multi-subject test (NMT) system for next year are being discussed, including the introduction of the option to retake the test.
"We are working on this. It's a broader issue than just the placement of testing centers. We are currently working on changing the NMT model to make it more flexible and accessible, and to provide options for retaking the test," Butenko told reporters at The Future We Choose forum on Tuesday in Kyiv, responding to a question from Interfax-Ukraine about whether there is hope that next year all temporary NMT exam centers will be located in shelters.
He said the NMT cannot be "the last chance of the year," and the goal is to make the testing more accessible and relieve the stress on children caused by the perception that the test day is "the day of the last chance."
According to him, several options are currently being developed, including testing over one or two days, or retakes in a few weeks or a few months.
"This also overlaps with the map of existing storage facilities, the number of which we expect to grow," the minister added.
As previously reported, in early June, amid public discussions about the national multi-subject test (NMT), chair of the Subcommittee on Higher Education of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Education, Science, and Innovation Yulia Hryshyna along with 50 MPs, introduced a bill (No. 15254-1) to reduce the number of subjects on the NMT in 2027 and to designate mathematics as an elective rather than a required subject.
Former Minister of Education and Science Oksen Lisovy and former Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko opposed this legislative initiative.
After being appointed Minister of Education, Andriy Butenko said the NMT should be optimized to account for current military realities.
He later discussed improvements to the NMT system with Verkhovna Rada Chairman Ruslan Stefanchuk, specifically the holding of two separate sessions and the possibility of introducing a winter NMT session.
In early August, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the government is working on changing the rules for taking the NMT in 2027.
On August 18, Ukrainian Minister of Education and Science Andriy Butenko said that mathematics should remain a required subject on the EIT, and that the discussion should focus only on the scope and difficulty of the exam.
Former Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine (2016-2019) and Vice Rector for Scientific and Pedagogical Work at Karazin Kharkiv National University Lilia Hrynevych believes that it is important for Ukraine to create a network of permanent testing centers for the National Multi-Subject Test (NMT)/External Independent Testing (EIT).
