The law stipulates that the children who will
start schooling on September 1, 2018, will only have an opportunity to be
taught in their mother tongue in primary school.
MOSCOW,
September 12. /TASS/. A new law on education passed by Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada
(parliament) violates the interests of millions of Russian-speaking citizens in
Ukraine and contradicts its Constitution and Kiev’s international obligations,
the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.
"Although
the law makes no mention of the Russian language, it is obvious that the key
objective of the current Ukrainian lawmakers is infringing on the rights of
millions of Russian-speaking citizens in Ukraine and the forcible establishment
of a mono-ethnic language in a multi-national state," the ministry said.
The Russian Foreign Ministry stressed that it sees "this move as an attempt by the ‘Maidan’ authorities to implement the full Ukrainization of the country’s education system, which is a direct contradiction to both its Constitution and Kiev’s international obligations in the humanitarian sphere."
It recalled
that the law has sparked criticism from the Foreign Ministries of Hungary,
Poland, Romania and Moldova’s president. "For our part, we are convinced
of the demand for concerted effort, including in various international
organizations to counter the policy pursued by Ukraine’s authorities trampling
under foot internationally recognized human rights standards," the Russian
Foreign Ministry stressed.
On
September 5, Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada passed the law on education. Its new
version stipulates that the children who will start schooling on September 1,
2018, will only have an opportunity to be taught in their mother tongue in
primary school, that is, for the first four years. As of the fifth grade, all
subjects should be taught in Ukrainian.
Source: ITAR-TASS 12-09-2017
