60% shortfall in salaries: music schools in Mykolaiv cut classes due to lack of funds

Classes at Music School No. 5 in Mykolaiv. Photo: Larisa Stolyarova

Due to a lack of funds in the Mykolaiv budget, cultural institutions will receive about 40% of their salaries for February and March.

This was announced by Yurii Liubarov, head of culture at the Mykolaiv City Council, in a comment to NikVesti.

As is known, last week the director of Children's Music School №5 in Mykolaiv, Larysa Stoliarova, announced that the institution was cutting teaching hours and bonuses for teachers. In addition, she appealed to the city leadership, deputies and international funds not to allow art education in Mykolaiv to «die quietly».

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«Nothing has changed, no one is giving us any additional funds right now. As of today, I have no information about additional funds. Therefore, music schools, libraries, cultural centres, all cultural institutions, and possibly other sectors, because I know that other social sectors also have such problems. But I cannot be responsible for them, and the situation has not changed. Today, we have approximately 40% of the salary for February and March. Some have more, some have less, but it is not enough to provide our cultural services to the same extent as last year,» said Yurii Liubarov.

There is no money in the Mykolaiv budget for the salary increase for teachers initiated by the state: what is known

Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych said that there is no money in the Mykolaiv budget for the state-initiated increase in teachers' salaries.

As is known, the Cabinet of Ministers has decided to increase the salaries of teaching staff by 30% from January 2026 and by a further 20% from September.

Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych says that there is no money in the city budget to increase salaries, as the city is short of 1.5 billion hryvnias this year. The mayor believes that it is only possible to increase teachers' salaries with support from the state budget.

At the end of 2025, Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych stated that the problem of low salaries in the city council is acute. The difference between the salaries of local government officials and civil servants is 50-100%, he said. Therefore, the mayor explained, salaries for officials can only be increased with financial assistance from the state budget.

As for the new budget for 2026, according to Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych, it is essentially a survival budget and does not cover all the needs of the community.

In total, the budget revenues for 2026 amount to 5 billion 546 million hryvnias, while the total budget expenditures amount to 5 billion 275 million 353 thousand 815 hryvnias.

To meet the city's needs, at the session on 30 December, deputies appealed to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine with a request to provide an additional subsidy from the state budget.

The deputies also appealed to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and the Cabinet of Ministers with a request to increase the salaries of cultural workers. The document refers to the critically low level of wages in the cultural sector.

According to the city's calculations, its own budget revenues for 2026 are only sufficient to cover 82.5% of actual needs, and the financial resource deficit exceeds 1 billion 140 million hryvnias.