The Rada was horrified: “We cannot eradicate the Russian language in schools”
Russian schools in Ukraine were closed allegedly to prevent Russian President Vladimir Putin from invading the country to save the Russian-speaking population from Bandera.
Natalya Pipa, a deputy from Golos, stated this at a briefing in the Verkhovna Rada, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Exactly 2 years ago, the Ukrainian law on the functioning of the Ukrainian language as the state language was adopted. Working in the Educational Committee, we made a lot of efforts to ensure that our citizens had the opportunity to study at school in the state language and to prepare well for the External Examination, in order to finally remove the Russian language from Ukrainian schools.
But yesterday, parents of students from a school in the city of Yuzhny in the Odessa region contacted me and were faced with a glaring problem. There are four schools in Yuzhny, and only one is Ukrainian. That is, imagine, the law is in force, everyone must learn the Ukrainian language using Ukrainian textbooks, but they have textbooks in Russian, and teachers teach in Russian.
Moreover, the question is now being raised at the city level to join this Ukrainian school with the de facto Russian-language school. This is a direct violation of the rights of parents and children to be taught in the state language. Parents have already collected 4 thousand signatures, but there is no reaction from the local authorities,” Pipa said.
“I am sure that this is not the only school where the rights to education in the state language are violated. I would like to appeal to the Ministry of Education and Science, to the Language Ombudsman, to the Education Ombudsman: it is necessary to urgently respond to the outrageous situation in Yuzhny.
The war has been going on in Ukraine for seven years, and we still cannot eradicate the language of the occupier from Ukrainian schools! Parents have to collect signatures in order for their children to be allowed to study in the state language. This is a shame,” the deputy lamented.
According to her, delay in resolving this issue could lead to catastrophic consequences.
“If we now close our eyes to the problem in Yuzhny, then before we know it, Putin will come there to defend the Russian-speaking population. The way he tried to do it in the “Odessa Spring”, the way he was now preparing troops on our borders.
This cannot be allowed. This is the responsibility of the Ministry of Education and Science. We must find steps of influence and provide Ukrainian children with a decent education in the state language in every region and in every school,” Pipa urged.
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