Parents Face a Fine of Up to 12,000 Hryvnias for Using Russian in the School Chat

Parents of students may face fines for using the Russian language in school chat rooms if the conversations pertain to the organization of the educational process.

This is stated in a letter from Olena Ivanovska, the Commissioner for the Protection of the State Language, to educators.

The language ombudswoman emphasized that parents are official participants in the educational process. Therefore, communication in parent chat groups and correspondence with teachers and school administrators regarding the organization of instruction falls within the public educational sphere.

Accordingly, such communication must take place in Ukrainian. At the same time, the requirements of language legislation do not apply to private communication among parents themselves.

Ivanovska noted that the educational process is not limited to classroom instruction. The requirement to use the state language also applies to teachers’ communication with students and parents, extracurricular activities, recess, and school work groups.

“Communication among participants in the educational process (parents, caregivers, teachers, administrators, and students) in work and parent groups related to the organization of instruction is not private—it concerns education as a public sphere of social life, and therefore must be conducted in the official language,” the statement reads.

At the same time, penalties are imposed for violations of language legislation in the field of education. For a first violation, a warning may be issued or a fine ranging from 3,400 to 5,100 hryvnias may be imposed.

If the violation is repeated within a year, the fine ranges from 8,500 to 11,900 hryvnias. Thus, in the event of a repeat violation, the penalty can reach nearly 12,000 hryvnias.

The Language Ombudsman also reiterated that the language of instruction in educational institutions is the state language, and teaching staff are required to use it while performing their official duties.

The statement separately notes that the law guarantees representatives of Ukraine’s indigenous peoples and national minorities the right to study their respective languages.

According to Ivanovska’s explanation, these guarantees do not extend to the Russian language as the language of an aggressor state.

The language ombudswoman called on educators to calmly and politely explain the legal requirements to parents and to emphasize that the use of the Ukrainian language in educational communication is not a personal requirement of the teacher, but a legal norm.

Ірина Глухова