RATIONALIZATION OF THE STRUCTURE OF THE EDUCATIONAL NETWORK IN THE CONTEXT OF THE EFFICIENCY OF THE USE OF FINANCIAL RESOURCES OF TERRITORIAL COMMUNITIES

Abstract

The article considers the problem of rationalizing the structure of the educational network of territorial communities of Ukraine in the context of the effective use of financial resources. In the context of the decentralization reform and the expansion of the powers of local self-government bodies, the issue of optimal expenditure management becomes particularly relevant. Territorial communities receive a significant share of resources for social needs, in particular, for education, which limits their opportunities for capital investments and the implementation of socio-economic development programs. In this context, the rationalization of the school network is considered as a tool for reducing the financial burden on the budgets of communities and the state. The demographic and financial aspects of the functioning of secondary education institutions are analyzed using the example of the Lviv region. A statistical analysis of the number of students, birth rates and fertility rates is conducted, which indicates a significant reduction in the contingent of schoolchildren over the past three decades. At the same time, the area of school premises per student has increased, which indicates a decrease in the actual occupancy of classes. The analysis of educational subventions showed that communities with under-enrolled schools spend significantly more per student, which creates direct pressure on the financial capacity of local budgets. A negative correlation was established between the average number of students in classes and the amount of educational subvention per student, which was confirmed by the conducted correlation-regression analysis (R2=0.7542), demonstrating that more than 75% of funding fluctuations are explained by changes in class occupancy. The study allowed classifying territorial communities of Lviv region according to the index of financial capacity of the school network into “green”, “orange” and “red” zones. Only seven communities belong to the “green zone”, where a financial reserve is formed for the development of the material and technical base of schools, while more than 56% of communities fall into the “red zone”, which indicates a high level of financial burden due to low actual class occupancy. The conclusions emphasize that optimizing the educational network is critically necessary to ensure the effective use of financial resources and save budget funds. At the same time, the optimization process should take into account social aspects: ensuring accessibility of education, transforming under-enrolled schools into centers of cultural life, and targeted investment of the released funds in the development of rural areas. Rationalization of the school network should become an integral part of the development strategy of territorial communities, contribute to improving the socio-demographic situation, and increase the efficiency of local financial resource management.