The Regional State Administration stated that it was not ready to comment on the new law regarding schools for national minorities

The Odesa Regional Military Administration stated that it is currently reviewing the final text of the newly adopted law on the educational rights of national minorities and is not yet ready to assess its implementation in the region in detail. At the same time, the Odesa Regional Military Administration confirmed the existence of schools in the Odesa region that could potentially qualify for the new status.

Oleksandr Lonchak, head of the regional Department of Education, mentioned this in a comment to Intent.

He noted that there are schools in the Odesa region that may qualify for special status, but he is not yet ready to specify how many such schools there are or in which language instruction will be conducted there.

The Verkhovna Rada adopted Bill No. 16119 in its entirety, which provides for the educational rights of Ukraine’s indigenous peoples and national minorities. The document was supported by 266 members of parliament. It has already been signed by the President of Ukraine. 

The adopted document guarantees children of indigenous peoples and national communities whose languages are official languages of the European Union the right to receive an education in their native language alongside the state language. In particular, schools will be able to obtain special status as educational institutions for a national minority or indigenous people if more than 50% of their students are taught in that language.

Under the new law, EU languages or the languages of indigenous peoples may be used on an equal footing with Ukrainian in relevant classes and groups, both in the educational process and in communication. In addition, students will have the right to receive translated versions of external assessment tasks, with the exception of the language and literature section. The reform is an important part of meeting the requirements for Ukraine’s further integration into the European Union.

Since Russian is neither an official language of the EU nor a language of Ukraine’s indigenous peoples, this law does not apply to it.

Юлія Калабайда