Hungarian organizations of Ukraine supported the new education bill

The two largest organizations of the Hungarian community of Ukraine supported draft law No. 16119 on the educational rights of national minorities and called on the Verkhovna Rada to adopt it as soon as possible.

This is stated in a joint statement by the “Society of Hungarian Culture of Transcarpathia” and the “Democratic Union of Hungarians of Ukraine”, published on October 2. The organizations said they support the document submitted to the parliament the day before and consider the proposed mechanism a solution to the long-standing dispute over education in the languages of national minorities.

Representatives of the Hungarian community noted that the bill was prepared following consultations between Ukraine and Hungary with the participation of European institutions. According to their assessment, the proposed amendments allow preserving the existing network of schools of national minorities and expand the possibilities for using the native language in the educational process. The organizations believe these provisions are important not only for the Hungarians of Transcarpathia, but also for other national minorities and indigenous peoples of Ukraine.

Draft law No. 16119 was registered in the Verkhovna Rada on October 1. Among its authors are parliament speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk, first deputy speaker Oleksandr Korniienko, deputy speaker Olena Kondratiuk and head of the education committee Serhii Babak. The document is currently under consideration by the relevant committee.

As explained by the Ministry of Education and Science, the document does not provide for a complete change of the language model of Ukrainian education. It introduces additional mechanisms for schools and classes where education is already conducted in the languages of indigenous peoples or national minorities.

In particular, a school where more than half of the students study in a minority language that is also an official language of the European Union will be able to obtain the status of a national minority educational institution. According to the Ministry of Education and Science, 149 schools, about 1.2% of all general secondary education institutions in Ukraine, may meet these criteria.

In schools where at least one class with instruction in a minority language operates, it is proposed to allow duplication in that language of signs, certain official documentation and, upon parents’ request, documents on education. At the same time, the decision to expand the list of subjects taught in Ukrainian in such classes must receive written support from at least two-thirds of the students’ parents.

The bill is also linked to Ukraine’s negotiations on joining the European Union. Serhii Babak, head of the parliamentary education committee, stated that the agreed mechanism should remove one of the reasons for Hungary’s veto on the opening of two negotiation clusters. Hungarian organizations in their joint declaration also linked the adoption of the document to the improvement of Ukrainian-Hungarian relations and the advancement of Ukraine’s European integration.