On March 17, at a session of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, a Draft Law on Amendments to Certain Laws of Ukraine Regarding External Independent Knowledge Assessment was considered. The legislative initiative is extremely relevant for almost half a million Ukrainian university applicants this year and in subsequent years. However, 221 people's deputies failed to press the "FOR" or "AGAINST" button. All of them were present in the hall but deliberately abstained from performing their direct duties. Thus, the people's representatives reserved for themselves the opportunity to conduct unconstructive political battles over educational reform on media platforms. The Communist Party faction and the Lytvyn Bloc "slept through" the vote in full composition, only one vote "FOR" and "AGAINST" was given by the faction of the Party of Regions of Ukraine, 153 votes "FOR" - BYuT (1 deputy also did not notice the vote, and 2 were absent), 68 deputies of the NU-NS Bloc supported the initiative (4 absent, including O. Doniy – a member of the VRU committee on education). A study by the "Democratic Initiatives" Foundation "Public Opinion on the First Experience of Admission to Higher Educational Institutions Based on the Results of External Testing" showed that people's deputies acted mainly contrary to their own voters' attitude toward the introduction of the EIA system. 42% of voters of the Party of Regions of Ukraine support independent testing, BYuT - 55%, Lytvyn Bloc - 38%, NU-NS Bloc – 58%, CPU – 22% (however, CPU voters are mostly of retirement age, who find it difficult to adapt to changes). By refusing to support the draft law, the people's representatives left unresolved not only such important issues of organizing and conducting independent knowledge assessment of graduates as: the introduction of uniform requirements, procedures for external independent assessment (which guarantees objectivity), openness of external independent assessment through the introduction of public observation, holding accountable persons who violate the right and procedure for conducting EIA in Ukraine. The draft law also provided for solving old problems of domestic education: the "mismatch" of curricula for general secondary education, the absence in the Law "On Higher Education" of a connection between admission conditions approved by the MES and admission rules approved by the head of a higher education institution. The OPORA Civil Network condemns the actions of 221 people's deputies who did not take responsibility for the results of the vote on introducing education reform norms at the legislative level. In addition, the representatives voted contrary to their own voters' attitude toward independent assessment. Thus, today we have witnessed 221 Ukrainian parliamentarians failing to perform their direct duties.