Watch ads or pay: The “Yedyna Shkola” app is once again blocking parents’ access to students’ grades
10 April 11:57
The developer’s estimated annual revenue from Ukrainian schoolchildren is estimated at half a billion hryvnias
The “Yedyna Shkola” electronic journal , which the Ministry of Education and Science officially recommends schools use, has once again found itself at the center of a scandal. Following last year’s incident, when parents suddenly lost access to their children’s grades due to the introduction of a mandatory paid subscription—and the service canceled the fee amid public outcry—the developers have returned with a new monetization scheme. This is reported by
Now the app displays ads that physically block access to students’ grades and homework assignments. Users are forced to wait for the ad blocks to finish , which, to make matters worse, are also broadcast in Russian.
“Not only do parents have to watch ads instead of seeing grades, or pay an unknown amount for each child’s daily log—460 UAH per year—but they also have to watch full-screen ads in that shitty language,” users note in the “Parents SOS” community
In addition, parents are outraged by the fact that after this “update,” the app frequently “logs parents out” and instructs them to contact the school administration to regain access.
What the app shows
Currently, to access grades without ads, the developers are asking parents of Ukrainian students to pay about 500 UAH per year:
- 12 months without ads — 476.74 UAH
- 6 months — 259.84 UAH
- 1 month — 61.60 UAH
- In fact, this is the same subscription that caused a massive scandal last time—only this time in a different package.
How much they want to make off parents
Google Play data shows that the “Yedyna Shkola” app has over 1,000,000 installs. Assuming that at least some users pay the annual fee of 477 UAH, the developers’ potential annual profit could reach:
1,000,000 users × 476.74 UAH ≈ 476,740,000 UAH per year
That is , nearly half a billion hryvnias—just for the “right” not to see ads in the school planner.
And this is for a service that schools choose based on a recommendation from the Ministry of Education and Science, and which has effectively become a monopoly in many regions.
About the “Yedyna Shkola” app
“Yedyna Shkola” is one of the digital platforms that schools can use to maintain journals and diaries. It is accessible to teachers, parents, and students. The platform is recommended by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and combines electronic documentation with modules for administration, distance learning, testing, and analytics for educational institutions.
The app’s developer is TATL Technology. And during the promotion of the app, particularly by the Ministry of Education and Science, the developers did not disclose their intentions to commercialize it.
Watch us on YouTube: important topics – without censorship
The First Scandal Involving an Attempt to Profit from Parents
Last September, following an update to the “Single School” app, hundreds of thousands of users lost access to their children’s data and were instead offered the option to pay for the service.
These actions by the developers sparked a wave of outrage among parents, schools, and even members of parliament.
“The law does not provide for such a fee. But if you calculate it over a year, it adds up to a substantial amount—2.2 billion hryvnias,”
commented MP Danylo Getmantsev at the time, who promised to address the author of the idea to monetize the state service. According to him, it looked as though “a large private operator had decided to make a profit.”
“I advise parents not to rush to pay. Something tells me he’ll lose this ‘business,’” the politician noted at the time.
And indeed, a few days later, the fee for using the app was canceled.
The Ministry of Education and Science’s Position
The Ministry of Education and Science took a very strange position in this scandal. On the one hand, it was the Ministry itself that recommended schools and parents across the country install the “Yedyna Shkola” app. But when the developers decided to profit from it, the ministry stated that, well, there are many apps, and others can be used.
At the same time, the Ministry of Education and Science noted that among all apps with an “Electronic Diary” feature, only one is a state-developed system—the “Mriya” electronic system—and it is free for all participants in the school process.
It remains unclear to this day why, during the rollout of electronic journals, the Ministry of Education and Science recommended private apps to public schools.
Read us on Telegram: important topics – without censorship
TATL Technology’s Position
The developer, TATL Technology , refers to the introduction of a fee for ad-free access to student data as “symbolic support.”
Additionally, the development team previously explained that the introduction of ads is, so to speak, part of a new model for the service’s sustainable development. The decision was made after receiving the international Innovation in Politics Award in Vienna and beginning work on entering the European market.
When commenting on the appearance of ads in Russian, the developers shifted all responsibility for this to Google.
“In this regard, in some cases, advertising materials in a foreign language may be displayed if the advertising network’s algorithms determine them to be relevant to a specific user. At the same time, the Company has activated all available restrictions on sensitive ad categories within the System and, together with Google, has investigated cases of violations of the restrictions defined by the Company, specifically regarding the display of ads in Russian. Currently, moderation of all ads has been strengthened in collaboration with Google support representatives,” noted “Yedyna Shkola.”
As reported by
