Ukraine's desire to lessen its dependence on natural gas from Russia, which has been waging a year-long war against the nation, has prompted the government to save energy in any way possible. One initiative prolongs the winter breaks of university and high school students to cut down on heating bills in the thousands of university buildings around the nation. Overall, Ukraine's government aims at reducing gas consumption - which reached 42 billion cubic meters last year. The government's goal is to reduce consumption by another 30 percent this year.
Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv students were sent home on Jan. 30 and will get back to work as late as March 1. Spring semesters in Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, Kyiv Mohyla Academy and Yaroslav Mudry Law University in Kharkiv start Feb. 2.
Meanwhile, high schools in Kyiv enjoyed a three-week long Christmas and New Year’s break, ending Jan. 18. It was about a week longer than normal. City Hall’s deputy head Hanna Starostenko expects saving as much as $480,000 from this move.
In other major cities, winter break for the high school students reached one month. Schools make their own decisions about the structure of the academic year and the schedule, though the Education Ministry provides the general recommendations.
To catch up with the study plans, students might have to switch to a six-day academic week or have an extra week of classes during summer.
However, overall these measures have not reduced gas consumption by schools too much – instead of 138 million cubic meters of blue fuel government-financed organizations used 134 million, according to Naftogaz, a state-run oil and gas enterprise.
Valentyn Zemlyansky, an energy expert, agrees that the measures don’t contribute much to reducing the energy deficit. Though gas is being saved, cold buildings are not good for anyone’s health.This is seen as one small step in reforming the energy sector towards energy efficiency. Naftogaz sells gas to the households as well as public institutions at a substantially lower price than the market prices, sometimes tenfold less. Market pricing for the households is expected to be introduced by 2017.
Lina Shevchenko, 19, studies journalism and political science at Taras Shevchenko University in Kyiv. She says, extended winter break is a big pleasure as it allows to stay longer with her family in Kryvy Rig.
However, some of her classmates are not too happy with the longer vacations, she admits, because they still have to pay the full university fee.
Shevchenko plans to attend additional classes on Saturdays and have an extra week of studying during summer to keep up with the academic plan.
Anna Yakutenko is a website editor of the Kyiv Post.
