A new standard for secondary education, the contest for the best design of the Great National Coat of Arms, and a reform unifying Customs and Tax services: decisions by Government

06 October 2020
A new standard for secondary education, the contest for the best design of the Great National Coat of Arms, and a reform unifying Customs and Tax services: decisions by Government
Home > Monitoring > A new standard for secondary education, the contest for the best design of the Great National Coat of Arms, and a reform unifying Customs and Tax services: decisions by Government

Today in our digest: the merge of Customs and Tax Services, the continuation of the New Ukrainian School reform, and the contest on the design of the Great National Coat of Arms.

The Cabinet launches the merge of the Customs and Tax Services

Who is affected: Ukrainian citizens, foreigners, Ukrainian and foreign business, state government bodies and local government, the Cabinet, employees of the Customs Service and the Tax Service of Ukraine.

What does it change:

  • territorial bodies of the State Tax Services will be dissolved as separate legal entities and become branch offices of the Tax Service
  • territorial bodies of the State Customs Service will be reorganized into branch offices of the Customs Service.

Why this is important:

  • the proposed changes will make the merger of the Customs Service and Tax Service into a single legal entity easier
  • the necessity to merge the Customs Service and the Tax Service is an obligation of Ukraine under the Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies with the International Monetary Fund. The deadline for the merger is January 1, 2021.

What is rightthe creation of a single legal entity should optimize personnel, administrative, and management resources of the state and allow to implement the state policies on customs and taxes better.

What is wrong: the state policy is not stable. In December of 2018, Ukraine agreed to take an obligation before the IMF to separate the State Fiscal Service into two separate bodies: the State Customs Service and the State Tax Service. Now, Ukraine in accordance to the agreement with the same international institution is going to reverse the process.

 

New standard for the secondary education

Who is affected: schoolchildren, teachers, parents, Ukrainian citizens, national minorities, the Ministry of Education, and the Cabinet.

What does it change:

  • defines the core competencies that schoolchildren have to acquire and enhance from the 5th and the 9th grade:
  • advanced proficiency in the state language
  • proficiency in mother language (if different from the state language) and foreign languages
  • competence in Math
  • innovativeness
  • ecological literacy
  • cultural competency
  • the standard will become a guideline for the development of a new model educational program for secondary education
  • the standard defines the school hours for the schoolchildren.

What is right:

  • the New Ukrainian School reform continues from the 5h to the 9th grade
  • funding for education will be increased.

 

Procedure of a competition to design the Great National Coat of Arms adopted

Who is affected: Ukrainian citizens, state government bodies and local government, the Ministry of Culture.

What does it change:

  • the provision on the competition is adopted, the organizational committee to prepare and conduct the competition is formed
  • the Ministry of Culture is obliged to calculate the amount of funding and conduct a public discussion about the design of the Great National Coat of Arms.

Why this is important:

  • at the end of August 2020, the Parliament adopted a resolution (3994) announcing the competition for the best design of the Great National Coat of Arms of Ukraine
  • despite the constitutional requirements, the Great State Coat of Arms is not yet designed, there is no law describing it and regulating its use.