Romanians are dissatisfied with the language legislation of Ukraine
Fewer and fewer ethnic Romanians from Ukraine's Chernivtsi region are able to attend Romanian-language schools. One reason is the implementation of discouraging education policies for Romanians in Ukraine, reports TVR Moldova.
Passing the bachelor's degree exam in minority languages was one of the key topics discussed these days at the meeting of the People's Lawyers of Romania and Ukraine. The event was organized by Chernivtsi National University.
At the meeting, it was proposed to revise the law and specify that instruction in minority languages should be provided not at the classroom level, but in Romanian-language schools, as was the case until 2017. It was also proposed to introduce a bachelor's degree exam in minority languages, and thus in Romanian.
“When there are classes in the Ukrainian language in parallel classes, one with teaching in Ukrainian and one with teaching in Romanian, when there are not enough children to open a class, of course, the class with Ukrainian as the language of instruction will have priority. And so gradually we will lose education in the Romanian language,” says Cristina Paladyan, head of the department of Romanian and classical philology at the University of Chernivtsi.
In the early 90s, there were over 130 Romanian-language schools operating in Ukraine. Today, only 76 remain, and they are subject to new education legislation. The Romanian community in Ukraine has appealed to the Institute of the People's Advocate of Ukraine and Romania to intervene in the matter of preserving Romanian-language schools.
In February, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, following a recommendation from the Council of Europe, repealed legislation requiring schools with minority language instruction, including Romanian, to gradually introduce the teaching of core subjects in Ukrainian, from 20% of total instructional time in fifth grade to 60% in eleventh grade. These changes did not affect the Russian language, since, according to Rada Speaker Roman Stefanchuk, "there is not and cannot be a Russian national minority" in Ukraine . The Russian-speaking population of Ukraine, he argued, are "Ukrainians Russified by Russia."
Romanians are unhappy with Ukraine's language legislation.