The Committee on Science and Education of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine proposes to reserve the right of national minorities and indigenous peoples to study in their native language. The MP from UKROP Iryna Konstankevych said it to journalists, commenting on the results of consideration of the draft law on education at the meeting of the profile committee. The MP has recalled that the representatives of the “Ukrainian Association of Patriots” insisted that Ukrainian should be the only language of educational process in Ukraine, and languages of national minorities and indigenous peoples could be learned additionally. This is stated in the amendments to the draft law, which have been developed by the Party Public Advisory Council on education.
“Neither I nor my colleagues from UKROP are satisfied with the position of the committee, because we have proposed to learn the languages of the national minorities, and not study in them. I think that the seventh article of the bill (on the language of education – Ed.) will be sharply discussed in the session hall, because it concerns the interests of many millions of people in Ukraine. We will defend our own point of view and submit our opinion to the minutes (of the committee meeting – Ed.),” stressed the MP.
The representative of UKROP has also noted that the draft law in the current edition does not address the issue of provision of hot meals for pupils of the 1-4 grades, and there is a risk of narrowing rights of children with special needs to study in residential institutions. Besides, according to Iryna Konstankevych, transfer of the bachelor’s degree to a three-year course also arouses concern, as higher education institutions should determine the length of the educational process by themselves.
“The MPs from UKROP will insist on their amendments on free meals for children, inclusive education, state financing of out-of-school institutions and other propositions during their consideration in Parliament,” said Iryna Konstankevych.
At the same time, she has noted that about 70% of the proposals of the Party Public Advisory Council were nevertheless taken into account while preparing the draft law to the second reading. These include, in particular, amendments on sufficient funding of educational institutions, taking into consideration the needs and opinions of the territorial communities regarding organization of education, provision of free schoolbooks, improvement of skills of pedagogical and scientific staff and the others.
