Behind the classroom curtains: Why parents are still footing the bill for classroom repairs, school security and teacher gifts

19 May, 07:10 PM

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Collage by NV/Maksym Kitsiuk

“Please contribute to the class fund,” “We need to chip in for the school fund,” “We’ve decided to renovate our classroom,” “The school doesn’t have enough for security,” “We should congratulate the teachers on Teacher’s Day,” or even “We’re out of paper towels and bottled water in the classroom” — these are the kinds of messages flooding parent group chats in Kyiv schools. And not just in Kyiv.

In early April, the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) published a study on corruption in Ukraine. The results showed that the most common setting for everyday bribery is the school system.

Nearly one in three respondents said school administrators or teachers had demanded gifts, money, or services from them within the past year.

Sometimes, these “requests” can turn hostile. One such example surfaced a few weeks ago in the public Facebook group Parents SOS, created as a platform for families to share and document instances of financial coercion in schools.

A user from the group — which has more than 241,000 members — wrote that her son, a first-grader at a school in Lviv, had become a target of bullying and teacher negligence after she refused to contribute to gifts for the teachers and principal.

The woman explained that the ongoing war had left her without the financial means for such presents. When she informed the school, the teacher allegedly began treating her son with hostility. Later, the teacher reportedly stopped helping him with schoolwork altogether — even though she continued to assist other students who made similar requests.

NV attempted to contact the author of the post for further details, but she did not respond.

Olena Parfionova, founder of the Parents SOS organization and moderator of its Facebook group, says there are really only two reasons children get bullied at school — one is interpersonal conflict, and the other is financial: when parents refuse to contribute money for school repairs or similar expenses.

“It seems like such a small amount,” Parfionova said. “Two hundred hryvnias a month — just skip two coffees. You don’t feel it the way you would if a hospital asked for 20,000 for a surgery.” On top of that, she noted, these requests are usually dressed up in language like, “It’s for your child’s benefit.”

“It’s like a cancer that’s metastasized,” Parfionova continued. “Only a small percentage of parents actually understand this is a form of everyday corruption.”

Parents vs. parents

So why does the KIIS poll point to widespread school corruption, yet the media rarely reports on these cases? Experts say it’s because the issue of money in schools has become multilayered. The story isn’t just about teachers or school administrators — it’s also about the parents themselves. And many of them find themselves on opposing sides of the conflict.

Comments under the Facebook post from the Lviv mother support this idea: “Soft” demands for money are common in schools, and those who dare to push back often face consequences. Not all of those consequences, however, come from school officials.

Parfionova knows the dynamic firsthand. Back in February 2014, she was asked by her child’s homeroom teacher to attend a parent meeting. Up to that point, she had been contributing 150 to 200 hryvnias for classroom repairs. But at that meeting, she learned that 170,000 hryvnias had disappeared from the school’s fund — and now, the parents were being asked to double their contributions.

Parfionova discovered that the school administration couldn’t explain why such a large sum was needed — nor could it provide any accounting records for the funds already collected. So, she decided to speak out and inform other parents. But the reaction caught her off guard: some parents turned on her and began harassing her.

“For the first six months, I didn’t understand what was happening,” Parfionova said. “They even held rallies outside Kyiv City Hall to defend the principal.”

Eventually, she contacted the Education Ministry and explained the situation. A ministry representative visited the school. A week later, the school’s principal — the one overseeing her child’s education — submitted her resignation.

“That’s when I created the Parents SOS group on Facebook,” she said. “At first, I thought my case was unique. But then people started messaging me anonymously to say this was happening at other schools too. I began writing about those schools, and eventually, I registered a civic organization.”

Today, that organization addresses a wide range of issues related to Ukraine’s education system.

A culture of giving — or pressure?

“Corruption in schools is a mix,” said Ivanna Kobernyk, co-founder of the NGO Smart Education, in a comment to NV. She explained that, based on parents’ stories, the constant stream of school-related payments typically falls into two categories: “gifts” and “repairs.”

“There are schools that encourage it, but there are also schools that try to avoid it. In those cases, it’s driven by parents,” Kobernyk said.

“Some parents feel an overwhelming internal urge to pay tribute to what they see as the ‘god of education,’” she continued. “They believe they must contribute money, or else they’re bad parents and their children will receive a poor education. They feel they must buy gifts, furnish the classroom, and stay involved. And the other parents are left wondering: is this just one mom trying to assert herself, or is it something the school is demanding?”

When it comes to classroom repairs, Kobernyk explained, schools don’t have access to “rapid-response budgets” to handle urgent issues. If a faucet breaks, for example, the principal doesn’t have funds on hand to fix it immediately.

“And if the faucet is broken, the restroom is out of service,” she said. “That’s why parents may contribute to a school fund for such needs. If that fund is officially registered, if there’s transparency and reporting on how the money is used, and if the contributions are truly voluntary — then I don’t see a problem.”

Ukraine’s National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) states in a video on its official YouTube channel that demanding gifts or money is a violation of the law. If a teacher asks for cash or material goods, parents are advised to report it to the principal — and if that fails, escalate the complaint to the local education department.

“Schools should be centers of openness, integrity and mutual respect — the values that form the foundation of a strong, transparent state,” said Aliona Khylko, project manager at the NACP’s Office of Integrity.

The agency, she said, has issued methodological guidelines to promote transparency and ethical practices in secondary education.

“We paid special attention to an issue that worries and outrages many parents — school funding. How can institutions meet their needs honestly, transparently and without violating principles of integrity?” Khylko said. “The issue of budget transparency remains relevant, especially in how local funds are used effectively and rationally — whether under regular conditions or during legislative changes, emergencies, or martial law.”

Education Ombudswoman Nadiia Leshchyk told NV that a few years ago, there was a surge in complaints about schools using parent funds to buy curtains. But that has since died down.

“Now parents contact us with concerns about inflated prices in school purchases,” she said. “We advise them to report it through the DOZORRO platform. But the number of complaints we receive about corruption and financial extortion in schools has declined compared to the period before 2022.”

Parfionova, however, remains firm in her stance: school websites should publish detailed financial reports. That, she says, is the only way to root out corruption.

“Grassroots pressure works,” she said. “We’ve taught parents how to submit information requests. They can now track what the school buys. So when someone says, ‘Please contribute for cleaning supplies,’ parents can check whether those items haven’t already been purchased.”

NV reached out to Ukraine’s Education Ministry for comment on the KIIS survey results. After several weeks of waiting, the ministry did not respond.

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