Communities in the Mykolaiv region are ready to co-fund the purchase of 12 school buses

School buses received by communities in the Mykolaiv region. Photo: Mykolaiv Regional State Administration

In 2026, the Mykolaiv Regional Education Department will be able to purchase 40 school buses on a co-financing basis. So far, they have expressed an interest in purchasing 12 buses.

This was announced by Alla Velikhovska, Director of the Department of Education and Science of the Mykolaiv Regional State Administration, at a meeting of the Mykolaiv Regional Council’s Housing and Utilities Committee on 13 April, according to NikVesti.

According to her, the limit for the purchase of buses has been set at 40 vehicles, with 50% co-financing from each of the nine education authorities.

«As of 12 February, we have received proposals to purchase 12 of the 40 buses, with confirmed 50/50 co-financing from nine education authorities: Vesniane, Mykolaiv, Yelanets, Vradivka, Bereznehuvate, Kryve Ozero, Inhulka, Snihurivka and Kutsurub communities,» said the head of the Department of Education.

There are also communities that are unable to pay half the cost. For instance, the Sofiivka community requested a bus on a 10% to 90% co-financing basis, and the Voskresenske community on a 30% to 70% basis.

Furthermore, according to Alla Velikhovska, the Kazanka settlement council requested a 14-seater bus, but such vehicles cannot be registered as school buses under the law.

«We appealed to the Congress of Communities to allow the use of smaller-sized specialised transport. So far, the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ service centres have not registered them as school buses,» she noted.

It should be noted that six communities in the Mykolaiv region will receive specialised school buses. Two of them are in Mykolaiv. They are to be transferred to the communal ownership of the communities. The total cost of the buses amounted to almost 27 million hryvnias.

It was previously reported that in 2025, the Mykolaiv region will be allocated 19.7 million hryvnias in subsidies from the state budget for the purchase of school buses. The buses were to be specially equipped to transport people with reduced mobility, with space for carers and wheelchair seats.