Ukraine’s 12-Year School System: The Final Three Years Begin in 2027

At what age does a Ukrainian child start school, how many years do they attend, and what exams do they take on the way to university? The law spells this out clearly. But that law is, right now, in the middle of a transition. The “12-year system” set out by the 2017 education law has not yet reached its final stage.

Two laws set the framework of the school system: the Law on Education (September 5, 2017, No. 2145-VIII) and the Law on Complete General Secondary Education (January 16, 2020, No. 463-IX). University entrance exams are administered by the Ukrainian Center for Educational Quality Assessment (УЦОЯО). The provisions below follow the current text as viewed on September 23, 2026 in the law database of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (zakon.rada.gov.ua); the most recent amendment to the Law on Education is Law No. 4742-IX of December 18, 2025.

Three Stages: Four Years, Five Years, Three Years

The Law on Education groups the schooling that corresponds to Japan’s elementary, junior high and high school under the single term “complete general secondary education” (повна загальна середня освіта), and Article 12 divides it into three stages.

The three stages may be housed in separate schools, or combined within a single school (same article, Paragraph 3). The Law on Complete General Secondary Education further divides each stage into “cycles”: grades 1–2 are “adaptation and play,” grades 3–4 are “basic,” grades 5–6 are “adaptation,” grades 7–9 are “basic subject learning,” grade 10 is “profile adaptation,” and grades 11–12 are “profile” (Article 10, Paragraph 2).

The final three years are a stage for choosing a direction. Article 12, Paragraph 7 of the Law on Education sets out two directions: an “academic” direction, which involves in-depth study of particular subjects on the assumption of going on to university or elsewhere, and a “vocational” direction, oriented toward the labor market. It also states that choosing either does not restrict the right to proceed to other stages of education.

What Age Do Children Enroll?

Article 12, Paragraph 4 of the Law on Education sets the enrollment age as follows: “Primary education is, in principle, received from age 6. A child who turns 7 by the start of the school year must begin primary education from that school year.”

In other words, enrolling at 6 is the principle, and 7 at the latest. Under the peacetime rule, the school year begins on September 1, “Knowledge Day” (Law on Complete General Secondary Education, Article 10, Paragraph 3). This differs in both its cutoff date and its logic from Japan’s system, which divides school years by whether a child was born between April 2 and April 1 of the following year. Children with special educational needs may begin at a different age or have their period extended (Law on Education, Article 12, Paragraph 5).

There are also caps on the length of a single class period: not more than 35 minutes for grade 1, not more than 40 minutes for grades 2–4, and not more than 45 minutes for grades 5–12 (Law on Complete General Secondary Education, Article 10, Paragraph 4).

Compulsory Education Is Not “Nine Years”

Japan’s compulsory education is the nine years of elementary and junior high school. Ukraine is different. Article 12, Paragraph 2 of the Law on Education states, “Complete general secondary education is compulsory in Ukraine.” The scope of that obligation covers all three stages — primary, basic and profile-oriented.

On top of this, it is guaranteed that education at each stage in public (state or municipal) schools can be received once in a lifetime, free of charge, funded by the state and local budgets. This applies to citizens of Ukraine, people lawfully residing in Ukraine, and, regardless of the basis for their stay, all children (Law on Complete General Secondary Education, Article 6, Paragraph 3).

Nor is there only one way to learn. The same law, Article 4, Paragraph 3, lists, alongside in-person (daytime) attendance, distance learning, network-based learning, external study, home (homeschool) education, educational patronage, evening classes, and correspondence education. The language of instruction is the state language, Ukrainian; education in the languages of indigenous peoples and national minorities is separately provided for (same law, Article 5).

The Transition to the 12-Year System Is Not Yet Complete

When did the 12-year system begin? The transitional provisions of the Law on Education (Chapter XII, Item 3) set the starting date for study under the 12-year curriculum, stage by stage.

• Primary education — from September 1, 2018
• Basic secondary education — from September 1, 2022
• Profile-oriented secondary education — from September 1, 2027

Children who became first-graders in September 2018 are the first cohort under the 12-year system. That cohort became fifth-graders in September 2022, and is in grade 9 in the 2026/27 school year. The order runs: the three-year profile-oriented secondary stage begins from September 1, 2027, when that cohort becomes tenth-graders. The transitional provisions of the Law on Complete General Secondary Education likewise apply the new rules for the profile stage starting September 1, 2027 for the first year, September 1, 2028 for the second, and September 1, 2029 for the third.

Until then, the provisions concerning the profile stage apply to “two-year upper secondary schools” (Law on Education, Chapter XII, Item 3, Sub-item 5). Students who enrolled before 2018 finish school after grades 10 and 11, two years, following the basic stage through grade 9. The description “Ukrainian schools follow a 12-year system” is legally correct, but as of 2026, the cohort currently graduating from school has not yet gone through the 12-year curriculum.

The Law on Education also provides that, if conditions are met (the existence of a corresponding education standard and a standard curriculum), the Cabinet may decide to introduce the profile stage before 2027 (Chapter XII, Item 3, Sub-item 4).

The idea of a 12-year system is not new in itself. According to the entry “Education” in the Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine (compiled by the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Alberta; reprinted from the encyclopedia published in 1984), at the end of 1917 a special committee of the Ministry of Education of the Ukrainian People’s Republic began work on a curriculum for a “unified labor school with 12 grades.” The same entry states that, in the Soviet period, an eight-year (compulsory) school and an eleven-year school were established under the 1959 reform.

Exams and Admission: ZNO in Law, NMT in Practice

Under the law, there is a “State Final Assessment” (ДПА) at the end of each stage. The state language and mathematics are tested at every stage, and after the basic and profile-oriented stages, Ukrainian history and a foreign language are also tested (Law on Complete General Secondary Education, Article 17, Paragraph 5). Article 47 of the same law provides that the State Final Assessment for the basic and profile-oriented stages is, in principle, conducted in the form of an “External Independent Evaluation” (ЗНО, ZNO). The ZNO is a unified examination administered by a state body outside the school (the Ukrainian Center for Educational Quality Assessment).

According to the Center’s own explanation, ZNO results are used as admission-selection scores for universities, and also serve as the school’s State Final Assessment score. Scores are given on a 100–200 point scale to test-takers who clear the passing line, and are also converted to a 1–12 point scale when used as the school’s final assessment.

However, since 2022, what has actually been conducted is not the ZNO. In its 2026 guidance, the Center explains that, because of Russia’s full-scale invasion, it is administering the “National Multi-Subject Test” (НМТ, NMT) in place of the traditional ZNO “for the fifth year running.” The NMT is a computer-based entrance test designed to guarantee equal access to higher education under martial law and similar conditions.

The State Final Assessment itself has also continued to be waived since 2022. The transitional provisions of the Law on Complete General Secondary Education exempt students who finish each stage in the 2021/22, 2022/23, 2023/24, 2024/25 and 2025/26 school years from the State Final Assessment (Chapter X, Item 3, Sub-item 14). In the text as viewed on September 23, 2026, the 2026/27 school year is not included in this list.

Provisions Suspended Under the Full-Scale Invasion

There are other places where legal principle and actual practice diverge. The transitional provisions of the Law on Complete General Secondary Education (Chapter X, Item 2-1) suspend the effect of the provisions on the school-year calendar for the duration of the martial law introduced by presidential decree on February 24, 2022. Under the peacetime rule, the school year begins September 1, has at least 175 instructional days, and ends by July 1 of the following year (Article 10, Paragraph 3). During martial law, the length of the school year and its start and end dates are decided by the Cabinet.

For test-takers living abroad, the Center’s 2026 guidance states it is setting up 54 temporary NMT testing sites in 32 countries abroad. Japan is not included in the list of countries where the main sitting will be held. The Law on Complete General Secondary Education also added, in 2025, a provision under which learning outcomes that Ukrainian citizens achieved abroad (excluding in countries designated as aggressor or occupying states) are recognized through a procedure set by the Cabinet (Article 6, Paragraph 6).

Points to Note When Viewed from Japan

Ukraine’s school year begins in September, and the enrollment age is “in principle 6, no later than 7.” Japan’s school year begins in April, and grade is decided mechanically by birth date. For children of the same age, which grade they were in in Ukraine and which grade they enter in Japan can fail to line up. How to think about this when enrolling in a Japanese school is covered in what a family can prepare in advance — school records and documents — before enrolling in a Japanese school.

The other point is that the system is in the middle of changing. The three-year profile stage is scheduled to begin in September 2027, and the special measures under martial law are for as long as martial law continues. The provisions and exam guidance described here reflect the situation as of September 23, 2026.