The Romanian Foreign Ministry (MAE) has announced it has taken notice with concern about the new Education bill adopted on September 5, 2017 by the Supreme Rada of Ukraine, mainly on article 7 regarding the education in the languages of national minorities.
“MAE reminds that, according to the framework-convention for the protection of national minorities, the states undertake to observe the right of every person belonging to the national minorities to learn in his mother language. The need of conformity to the international rules in the field has been constantly reminded by the Romanian party in relation with the Ukrainian party on the issue of protecting the rights of the persons belonging to the Romanian national minority in Ukraine,” a MAE release on Thursday reads.
MAE has also announced that the issue of education in the mother tongue for Romanian ethnics in Ukraine is listed as priority on the State Secretary Victor Micula’s agenda, who is to pay a visit to Kiev next week in order to discuss the issue of the Romanian minority in Ukraine.
“We express our expectation that the rights of people belonging to the Romanian minority in Ukraine are observed and we underline our constant concern on this issue,” the release reads.
Ukraine’s Supreme Rada has adopted a new version of the education law, according to which Russian, Hungarian and Romanian schools will be forbidden. The national minorities will be allowed to learn in their mother tongue only a few subjects. On the other hand, further concessions have been made to the Crimean Tatars. According to the new educational programme, only one or two subjects will be studied in two or more languages, the official language, English and another EU official language.