The Verkhovna Rada has banned Russian schools since 2020. Loophole – only for Hungarians and Romanians
The Verkhovna Rada adopted in the evening a new version of the education law, according to which, from 2020, a de facto ban on Russian, Hungarian and Romanian schools will be introduced. National minorities will be allowed to study in their native language only in certain disciplines in schools. But significant concessions were made for the Crimean Tatar Majlis.
Representatives of the nationalist party “Svoboda” were dissatisfied with the adopted innovations - they demanded total Ukrainization.
During the discussion in the hall, not a single representative of the “Opposition Bloc” protested against the infringement of the rights of Russian-speaking voters.
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The new version of the education law provides for the closure of the remaining Russian, Hungarian and Romanian schools in Ukraine by 2020. Until then, the so-called transition period. Within its framework, more and more disciplines will be translated into Ukrainian for current high school students.
After the end of the transition regime, education in a minority language will be allowed only in certain groups of kindergartens - as part of pre-school primary education.
Secondary education in their native language is permitted by the new law only for “indigenous peoples of Ukraine.” As is known, the Verkhovna Rada previously recognized the Crimean Tatars as such, as part of its flirtation with the Mejlis banned in Russia.
However, the “indigenous” will also be allowed to have only separate classes, and not entire educational institutions, as before.
From now on, Russians will only be guaranteed the opportunity to study their native language as a separate discipline.
The consequences can be judged from predominantly Russian-speaking Kyiv, where the younger generation no longer learns Russian in schools (or learns it to a minimal extent) and does not know how to write Russian correctly.
Now it may turn out that there seems to be no formal basis at all for studying the Russian language in Kiev, since even the Russian-speaking population often calls themselves “Ukrainians” during the census, and their native language is “Ukrainian.”
Small concessions have been made for Hungarians, Romanians, and Bulgarians.
“In educational institutions, according to the educational program, one or more disciplines may be taught in two or more languages - the state language, English, other official languages of the European Union,” says the new law.
Ukrainian nationalists from Svoboda were unhappy with this loophole.
“You have written “languages of the European Union”. Do you know which languages of the European Union are ruining the country today? Do we have problems only in the East of the country? Do we have problems in other regions? Therefore, if you write this, then it should only be in English,” demanded deputy Nikolai Levchenko, but his amendment was not taken into account.
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