Ukraine is a country situated in the Eastern Europe. To realize how far away it is, understand that the time difference is 12 hours. That means it is on a completely different side of the Earth. Of course, there are a lot of differences and education is not an exception. I’ve already completed nine grades in Ukraine and the American school system is so different for me. Why?

Subjects

No electives. At all. In Ukraine, we have about 17 subjects each year. They are not divided by semesters or quarters, you study everything at the same time.

What are they? Last year I had Ukrainian language, Ukrainian literature, English, French (or you can choose German) Algebra, Geometry, Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Geography, Art, PE, Civics, History of Ukraine, World history, Health and Working.

Again, this is not a list you choose from — students take all of these classes!

Grades

Does this mean it’s harder to study?

That depends.

If you want to get straight A’s — yes. Why? Because we have a twelve-point grading system.

Basically you can get grades lower than F and they are not considered to be good. If you get 1, 2 or 3 for any subject, you have to repeat the whole year. For example, if you finished 10th grade with a 2 in Algebra, you don’t go to 11th grade. You repeat the 10th grade.

By the way, we have 11 years of schooling, and high school takes two of them, 10th and 11th.

Sport

We do not have sport at school. To be honest, my school doesn’t even have a simple gym for running, soccer or basketball. Usually students do sport outside of school. I go to a sport centre.

Time

All the schools in Ukraine start at the same time, the first of September. Obviously, they end at the same time also, the last Friday of May. Usually there is a big celebration in front of the schools.

We come to school at the same time as you do, 8 a.m. and leave around 3:20 p.m.

In one day, a typical student in Ukraine has seven to eight classes that last 45 minutes each. By the way, all 5 workdays have different schedule, because you have some classes more often than others. For example, last year I had 4 classes of English a week, but only one of Health.

Classes

I don’t mean subjects. For us, class is a group of people who stay in the same room for some time. Basically, I mean classmates. But, in Ukraine, we don’t change classes for every subject. Students stay with the same people for years in one room! I’ve been with some students for five years, with others for nine.

Oh, we have double desks, so you always have somebody to talk to — your neighbor.

Building

I was shocked when I heard students say Kalani High School isn’t very big. I’ve never seen such a big campus. In Ukraine, there are usually 1,000 pupils in one school but our schools include high school, primary and middle schools.

This fact spawns such thing as alternation. What is that? Since middle school, your class has to do it once or twice a year for one week. Everyone has his own post, and his task is to watch students not run (usually if they run, I can make them squat).

Uniform

We have it. All schools require it. The ideal one is a black bottom with a light top. Boys are only allowed to wear pants and shirts but girls can also wear skirts and blouses.

Sometimes the dress code is very strict but, to be honest, when you enter high school, it’s not so strict.

In Ukraine, you can’t wear shorts, tee-shirts, or slippers. Often girls aren’t even permitted to have loose hair.

School is only one part of our everyday life, and today you got to know how different it can be. What else can be different?

Everything.

If you want to know more, you can always see me on campus. Thanks for reading!

З найкращими побажаннями, Максим Заболотний.

Best wishes,

Maksym(Max) Zabolotnyi