Hundreds of appeals and unequal conditions for applicants: the government is proposed to lower the passing score of the NMT to 130
The Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, addressed the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Ministry of Education and Science with a proposal to reconsider the approaches to conducting the National Multi-Subject Test (NMT), in particular to consider lowering the passing score for competitive selection from 150 to 130.
According to him, this year's conditions for taking the NMT are significantly complicated due to air raid alerts, prolonged stays in shelters, technical failures, and the absence of an effective appeal mechanism regarding incorrect tasks. He emphasized that such factors affect the test results and create unequal conditions for applicants.
Lubinets noted that only in June 2026 he received 21 appeals regarding problems during the NMT, but he believes the actual number of cases is much higher.
Among the ombudsman's proposals are also the restoration of the right to appeal incorrect test tasks and the publication of tests and correct answers after the completion of the NMT. Separately, he emphasized the need to regulate the testing of children who are in places of detention, noting that they have a constitutionally guaranteed right to education.
According to Lubinets, during the NMT there are cases of prolonged stays of students in shelters during air raid alerts. In particular, in Odesa, graduates spent more than 13 hours in the examination center. He also provided data on the provision of shelters: in some regions they are fully operational, including 100% in Sumy and Kharkiv regions, about 90% in Mykolaiv, Chernihiv, and Cherkasy regions, 70% in Kyiv, 50% in Rivne, while in other regions the situation remains problematic.
Separately, the ombudsman noted that during 138 monitoring visits to schools in 2025, it was found that most shelters do not meet safety requirements, and in some educational institutions they are absent altogether.
He also mentioned a case in Vinnytsia region where a graduate lost the opportunity to take the NMT due to a technical failure and was admitted to an additional session after intervention by his office.
In addition, violations of the right to education were recorded for six children held in pre-trial detention centers, although there are 152 such children in Ukraine in total.
Lubinets emphasized that the right to education should not depend on technical failures or organizational problems, and the state must adapt the testing system to wartime conditions.
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