Culture, education to suffer from budget cuts during COVID-19 pandemic

As Ukraine enters the fourth week of its COVID‑19 quarantine, the country is planning to tighten its belt and cut many expenses, while getting ready for deficit-busting spending in a budget that was planned to be about $50 billion for 2020.

Some of the harshest cuts will hit culture and education as the state seeks to shift more resources into stopping the spread of the coronavirus. Fiscal austerity is out the window. Instead, deficit spending is expected to go from 2.1% of the national economy to 7% as the economy is expected to be hit with a recession that lowers GDP to $140 billion, for at least 5% shrinkage

Some of the harshest cuts will hit culture and education.

The government is planning to change the 2020 budget to allocate an Hr 97.1-billion ($3.5-billion) emergency fund designed to make payments to medical employees, businesses, retirees and those who lose their jobs because of the COVID-19 crisis.

On March 30, the Cabinet’s initial bill didn’t receive enough votes in parliament. The draft will have to be refined before lawmakers will consider it again. 

However, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmygal said that the bill didn’t get enough votes because many lawmakers were absent at the moment. So it is likely that the government’s plan will not undergo many changes before they reintroduce it to the parliament.

If that is the case, many cultural and educational development programs will be shuttered until the country’s economy recovers from the crisis.

But even if the Ukrainian economy recovers quickly, the lack of state funding might have a negative effect on these areas, which will last long after the emergency is over.

The country’s 2020 budget, which was passed last year, foresaw Hr 1.2 trillion ($50 billion) in spending and Hr 1.1 trillion ($45 billion) in earnings. The government’s bill suggests that now the earnings will decrease by 11%, while spending will increase by 7%.

As a result, the budget’s deficit, which was supposed to stand at around 2% of the gross domestic product, is expected to rise to 6.8%. The situation may get even worse since these calculations were made when GDP was expected to grow by 3.7% in 2020. Now, GDP is expected to fall to -4,8%. 

Culture

According to the government’s bill, the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy, which is also responsible for youth and sports activities, will lose about Hr 5.9 billion ($213.1 million), a bit less than half its budget.

The plan will reduce spending on sports, as many competitions have been canceled. It will also cut funding for the National Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine, which is already in debt because of unpaid bills for transmission services.

As for culture, initially, the government planned to cut virtually all expenses except for salaries. That would have meant ending all current projects by the ministry of culture and the institutions that it oversees: the State Film Agency, Ukrainian Cultural Fund, Ukrainian Book Institute and more. 

Throughout independent Ukraine’s tumultuous history, culture has always been pigeonholed as something secondary.

But the 2013-2014 Euromaidan Revolution, which ousted ex-President Viktor Yanukovych, jump-started the country’s cultural conversation. As a result, the state began to fund Ukrainian-made films, promoting and financing local literature and generally acknowledging culture’s importance.

So it’s no surprise that the Cabinet’s initial proposal sparked outrage inside the local cultural community. On March 27, around a thousand creators joined an online protest called “No to destroying culture” on the Zoom video conferencing platform to discuss the issue.

In a statement on Facebook, the online demonstration’s organizers said that they couldn’t remain silent despite the quarantine measures and that they “will not allow the destruction of the Ukrainian culture.”

The parliamentary committee for humanitarian and information policy backed the demonstrators’ position in a statement. “Such a step will lead to a crisis and stagnation of the creative industries of the country, to the loss of thousands of jobs,” they said.

As a result, the Cabinet of Ministers reconsidered the cuts and allocated funds for “the most significant projects,” Shmygal said on Facebook.

According to the revised plan, the budget for national theaters remains almost unchanged. They will lose only Hr 120 million ($4.3 million), but keep Hr 1.27 billion ($45.9 million).

Meanwhile, the State Film Agency is losing about Hr 300 million ($11 million) from its Hr 750 million ($27 million) planned budget.

The agency has had an enormous effect on the development of Ukrainian cinema by providing state funding to films through open contests. Some of the best Ukrainian movies made in recent years, which received awards at international festivals, were at least partially state-financed.

Both the Ukrainian Institute, which is in charge of cultural diplomacy, and the Ukrainian Cultural Fund, which provides grant support for innovative artistic expression, lost about half of their budget each.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Book Institute is facing the biggest loss — from their nearly Hr 150 million ($5.4 million) budget, they will receive only third.

The institution will have to cancel most of its planned projects this year, including the publication of 80 translations of Ukrainian books into foreign languages and the launch of an online library offering free access to thousands of books by local authors.

Oleksandra Koval, the head of the institute, says that the Ukrainian authorities have never understood the importance of culture and have given it whatever is left after all other expenses. 

Koval says that Ukrainians read much less than people in European countries and demonstrate low levels of critical thinking, which is why promoting reading and supporting publishers and authors is vital. 

According to Koval, after the last book publishing crisis in 2013–2014, only 200 book stores were left in the country. “But they too will disappear in 2-3 months,” Koval told the Kyiv Post.

While she understands that times are hard, Koval says the government’s measures will rob the sector of its last hope.

“Of course, culture will never disappear, but in a couple of months or years, the whole cultural landscape will be unrecognizable and will have to start all over again, as if we haven’t had the previous 30 years,” she said.

Education and science

Another area that faces major cuts is the Ministry of Education and Science. 

Although the government is planning to reduce its budget only by 4%, that is about Hr 6 billion ($217 million). Shmygal says it will not significantly affect the main educational programs.

However, Roman Hryshchuk, a lawmaker with President Volodymyr Zelensky’s ruling Servant of the People party and a member of the parliamentary committee for education, science and innovation, disagrees with the prime minister.

“It’s meager money,” Hryshchuk wrote on Facebook. “But it just so happens that the fate of education and science and the reforms, which have been successfully developing up to this point, depend on these meager funds.”

Hryshchuk says that the only parts that will remain the same are the salaries of teachers, professors and scientists, which are “miserably low anyways.”

An employee disinfects a classroom in one of the schools in Kyiv on March 12, 2020. As part of the quarantine measures aimed to slow down the spread of coronavirus, all schools in Ukraine have been shut down since March 12. (AFP)

According to Hryshchuk, funding for the Capable School program, which renovates decaying school buildings, will be cut almost in half. The New Ukrainian School, the ministry’s key reform, which implements progressive new approaches in teaching and learning, is to be cut by a quarter. Funding for a program that encourages young teachers to work at schools by providing additional payments will be almost cut in half.

Meanwhile, science is set to lose most of its funding: Financial support for scientific research in higher education institutions will be cut by 88%, while the National Research Fund, which gives grants for scientific studies, will lose half its funding.

In a joint statement, the education ministry and the relevant parliamentary committee, said that the lack of funding for research might even affect Ukraine’s development of testing systems for coronavirus and the overall fight with COVID-19.

The ministry and committee say that these cuts deprive education and science of the chance to develop, which might cause irreparable damage to the future of the whole country.

“The way Ukraine will look like in the future depends on the level of education and science, how firmly it will stand on its feet and whether it will withstand any subsequent challenges,” their statement reads.

Selective cuts

As part of the emergency plan, the government aims to reduce state officials’ salaries. Those who normally make more than Hr 47,000 ($1,700) monthly will receive half of that. Exceptions will be made for officials involved in fighting the pandemic and in national security and defense activities.

The biggest reduction is planned for the Ministry for the Development of Communities and Territories. It will lose about Hr 11.7 billion ($423 million), or most of its budget.

But while some ministries will have to substantially transform their plans for 2020 because of the cuts, others will remain almost untouched.

The ministries of energy (Hr 88 million), foreign affairs (Hr 173 million) and justice (Hr 459 million) are all facing insignificant reductions. The Interior Ministry will have the smallest cut, losing less than Hr 5 million ($180,500). According to Hryshchuk, that is less than 0.5% of this ministry’s budget.

The Finance Ministry told the Kyiv Post that the government’s bill does not include reductions in defense and security expenditures and certain social payments.

“The Interior Ministry is involved in measures to counteract the coronavirus in Ukraine,” the ministry stated. “The funding of public authorities involved should be fully secured.”

Some, however, disagree with the disproportionate budget cuts in culture.

Volodymyr Tsabal, a lawmaker with the 20 member Voice party, says that the suggested budget is not realistic and that Ukraine should make cuts across all fields, not just selectively in education and culture.

“Everybody has to ‘tighten their belts’ at the time of the epidemic,” Tsabal wrote on Facebook.