The people’s deputies, representatives of the Ministry of Science and Education, educational authorities, scientific institutions, national minorities NGOs, headmasters and teachers, ambassadors of Poland and Hungary, and representatives of diplomatic missions of other countries participated in the discussion.
The Committee Chairperson Liliya Hrynevych stressed that Ukraine is one of the few countries in Europe, where education at schools is provided in eight languages of national minorities. 31 languages, including 19 languages of national minorities is taught in secondary schools.
“There is a well-known phrase – “there are no somebody else's children”. Whatever language does a child speak with her/his mother s/he is a citizen of our country. We are obliged to provide any child with the right to access to quality education in Ukraine. This implies the right to be taught in their native language and the right to perfect mastery of a state language,” stressed L.Hrynevych.
She noted also that representatives of national minorities cannot qualitatively study the state language. The number of hours provided for the study of an official language at minority schools is significantly lower than in the Ukrainian-language schools.
According to the Committee Chairperson, methodology of learning the official language for national minorities’ schools should be modernized considering results of research works, system of teacher preparation, modern equipment.
Representatives of national minorities stressed the necessity of increasing a number of hours for learning native languages. After the introduction of the new standard, their learning in 5-9 forms was decreased by 2 hours. Training of teachers for schools where national minorities’ languages are taught need to be improved. No higher education establishment in Ukraine trains teachers of the Gagauz, the Moldovan and the Hebrew languages. There is no system for improving their qualification.
Generalized remarks and proposals of the national minorities representatives will be considered during the work of the Committee and submitted to respective executive authorities. They will also be taken into account during elaboration of the draft law “On education” and will be a basis of recommendations of the parliamentary hearings on October 23, 2013.