[lg policy] Agreements with Kyiv on education law's language article not achieved

[Harold Schiffman]

 Agreements with Kyiv on education law's language article not achieved

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[image: Agreements with Kyiv on education law's language article not
achieved]

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary declares that
agreements with the Ukrainian side regarding the language article of the
law on education of Ukraine have not been reached, the Hungarian government
will abandon the policy of blocking Ukraine's international aspirations
only if the Transcarpathian Hungarians confirm agreements on every detail
of this law.

"No kind of agreement has been reached with regard to the Ukrainian
Education Act; Ukraine is still refusing to implement the recommendations
of the Venice Commission," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade's
Deputy State Secretary Tamas Menczer's commentary reads, posted by the
Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

He pointed out that according to Ukrainian press reports, the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs of Ukraine concluded an agreement with the Hungarian
partners on the education law. "The reports published by the Ukrainian
media are a lie, the situation is exactly the opposite," the Deputy State
Secretary Menzer said.

He stressed that the position of the Hungarian government remains
unchanged: Ukraine cannot begin implementing the law on education until it
reaches agreement with national minorities on this issue, including with
the Hungarian national minority.

"We are glad that it seems the consultation will begin soon,
Transcarpathian Hungarians can count on the full support of the Hungarian
Government," he said.

According to him, the Hungarian government will abandon its policy of
blocking Ukraine's international aspirations only if the Transcarpathian
Hungarians say that an agreement has been reached on every detail of the
law on education. "That is still a long way off," said Menzer.

As reported, the Ukrainian law on education came into force on September
28, 2017.

Among other things, the law stipulates that the state language is a
language of learning at educational institutions, but one or several
subjects in two or more languages, namely, the state language, English and
other European Union official languages can be taught in compliance with
the educational program.

People, who belong to ethnic minorities, are guaranteed the right for
learning in the native language along with the Ukrainian language in
separate groups of municipal pre-school and primary school institutions.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry sent the education law for examination by
the Venice Commission.

On December 8, the Ukrainian Education and Science Ministry reported that
the Venice Commission had not supported Hungary's accusation of narrowing
the rights of national minorities in the article on the language of
instruction in Ukraine's law on education.

On December 11, the ministry said that it was grateful to the Venice
Commission for its work on providing conclusions on the language of
instruction article of the education law, was ready to implement its
recommendations and had already developed three models for the
implementation of this article in the law on general secondary education.

On December 13, Ukrainian Education and Science Minister Lilia Hrynevych
said that a draft law on secondary education with explanations on the use
of languages in education, in accordance with the conclusions of the
European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission), was to
be submitted for consideration by the Verkhovna Rada in the spring of 2018.

"Now, given these conclusions, we need to formulate models of education for
national minorities in the law on general secondary education. That is, we
will not make any changes to Article 7 [on the language of instruction] of
the law on education," she told journalists.

The Ministry of Education and Science declared its readiness to implement
the recommendations of the commission and developed three models for the
implementation of the language article in the law "On General Secondary
Education."

On February 7, Deputy Foreign Minister Vasyl Bodnar, on the results of his
visit to Zakarpattia region, wrote on Twitter that key issues on the
settlement of the language issue had been agreed with the representatives
of Hungary.


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 Harold F. Schiffman

Professor Emeritus of
 Dravidian Linguistics and Culture
Dept. of South Asia Studies
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305

Phone:  (215) 898-7475
Fax:  (215) 573-2138

Email:  haroldfs at gmail.com
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/

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