The day before Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has issued the recommendation that Kiev authorities have to revise recent Education law, Lenta.ru reports.
According to PACE members, the rights of national minorities to access to education in their own language might be violated if the law comes in power. Ukraine has to address this issue taking to account the bilingual education model for indigenous peoples and national minorities of Ukraine to prevent discrimination.
Also PACE reminded Kiev about its commitment to the international obligations it had undertaken. PACE resolution also contains recommendation on preservation and development national minorities.
Let us remember that the day before Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko was speaking at the PACE meeting. He has promised that Kiev would amend a new law about education, Lenta.ru reports. He made this statement today during his presentation at Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe.
According to the Ukrainian President, Ministry of Education is to consider conclusions of the Venice Commission and to amend all ambiguous articles. It is worth reminding that the Venice Commission of Council of Europe has concluded that there should be a reasonable balance between the role of Ukrainian as a state language and necessity to protect languages of the national minorities and regional dialects.
Last month Poroshenko signed amendments to the law About Education, which basically prohibits teaching in any other languages but the Ukrainian language. According to this document, children will be able to study in minority languages including Russian at the initial grades only. Starting fifth grade all school subjects will be taught in the Ukrainian language only. This will be a norm until 2020, after that Russian together with other languages will be excluded from the school curriculum at all.
