Ukraine has tried to explain the rationale behind the language norm in a new education law that has outraged neighboring countries.
Ihor Prokopchuk, permanent representative of Ukraine in the International Organizations in Vienna, during his speech at the OSCE Permanent Council meeting in Vienna on Sept. 28 clarified the points of the new law, which came into force on Sept. 28.
He said the language norm in the law doesn’t restrict the minorities language rights, but rather stimulates children from national minorities to fully integrate into Ukrainian society.
After Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed the bill on Sept. 25, Romania and Russia raised an international outcry, claiming their national languages were being discriminated against in Ukraine.
Moreover, Hungary even threatened to block and veto every step Ukraine takes towards the European Union because of the new norm.
Prokopchuk said that the new education legislation stipulates that the language of the educational process in Ukraine is the official language of the state.
“But the same language norm of the law clearly ensures the right of national minorities in Ukraine to maintain their collective identity through the medium of their mother tongue at primary and secondary levels of education,” Prokopchuk said in a statement published by Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry on Sept. 29.
Prokopchuk said that while working on the law, the Ukrainian authorities took into account Ukraine’s obligations and commitments under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages and the Council of Europe Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.
“These conventions underline that the right to maintain a collective identity through a minority language must be balanced by the responsibility to integrate and participate in the wider national society through the knowledge of both the mother tongue and the state languages,” Prokopchuk said.
Prokopchuk said that the new norm applied only to public and state schools, and even for those schools it will only be obligatory to study all subjects in Ukrainian after primary school.
As first years of education are the most important in a child’s development. …Pre-school and kindergarten levels should ideally be taught in the child’s language, reads the ministry’s message.
“At the secondary level of education, apart from the teaching of the national minority language and literature, one or more subjects can be taught in the languages of the European Union,” Prokopchuk said.
“Studies of a number of subjects, in particular mathematics, will be accompanied by the use of vocabularies enabling students to learn the respective terminology in their minority language,” added the diplomat.
The new education reform will be fully implemented in September 2018. The authorities have set a transitional period until September 2020 for children who are now being taught in their national minorities languages, with a gradual increase of studying of subjects in the state language.
The full text of Prokopchuk’s speech can be read here.
