Introduction . In the period when the Ukrainian state is being formed and developed, the reforms in Ukrainian education, aimed at integration into the European cultural and economic space, make the study of Ukrainian primary education development (especially education of the largest strata – Ukrainian peasantry) important for solving tasks in modern instruction and training of younger generation. The article deals with the Orthodox parish clergy’s activities to involve the majority of the population in school education and with the evolution in understanding the importance of education by the peasants. The purpose of the article is to emphasize the role of the Orthodox parish clergy in providing primary education in the 19th - early 20th century and to find out the attitude to its implementation, presented by the majority of the population in Uman district. Results. The article analyses the peculiarities of providing primary education among the peasantry in Uman district in the 19 th - early 20 th century. The authors have emphasized that the clergy faced a number of unresolved issues, one of which was the misunderstanding and unwillingness of the peasants themselves to receive education. Moreover, the peasant responsibilities were difficult to reconcile with the need to go to school. In addition, the priests could not spend enough time to educating the peasantry because of their main duties. The authors have found that only in late 19 th century in Right Bank Ukraine, in particular in Kyiv province, the process of creating public schools was being intensified. Nevertheless, the level of the peasantry’s literacy remained unsatisfactory. In addition, the level of education among women was much lower than among men. Conclusion. The Ukrainian peasantry was the least educated. Since childhood the peasantry children had helped their parents and as a rule had performed their responsibilities at home. At the age of 10 they were involved in work in landlords’ estates. In late 18th - early 19 th century rural parish schools of Kyiv province were not actually public. In most cases they were not aimed at the education of the peasants, but at the formation of their religious beliefs. The Orthodox Church undertook the task of involving the broad masses of the peasantry in school education. The clergy were responsible not only for the education of peasant children, but also for the organization and maintenance of schools, which were originally housed in the homes of priests and junior deacons. It is practically impossible to determine the number of children who regularly attended school. Household duties, lack of seasonal shoes and clothes, long distance to school, weather conditions, etc. prevented the students from being present at lessons. Charitable priests of Uman district reported that in such villages as Hlybochok, Maydanetske, Dovhenke, Zayachkivka, Rozsishky, Posukhivka schools did not properly function due to lack of support from the economy and estate managers, absence of premises and opposition of local landowners, who were against the idea of education for peasants. Since the second half of the 19 th century in the Right Bank Ukraine, in particular in Kyiv province, the process of creating schools had been intensified. In 1861-1862 Kyiv province became the first among other provinces in the empire in terms of the rate of expansion of church parish education. By 1870 the largest number of schools if compared with other districts of the province had been opened in Uman district. Nevertheless, according to the materials of the First All-Russian Census of 1897 the number of literate rural population was reported to be 10.6% of the total peasant population in Uman district