Ukrainian Ambassador to Bucharest, Oleksandr Bankov, says the Education Law for pre-university studies will favour minorities in the European Union against Russian.
In an interview granted to ‘Romania libera’ newspaper, the Ukrainian envoy admits he did not speak Ukrainian until he was 14, as he is from Luhansk. He says the Education Law will not put on hold the ‘upward trend’ of the relations between Bucharest and Kiev.
The Ambassador says talks in Kiev on the law have showed openness from the Ukrainian side to Romania’s proposals on secondary education. The Ukrainian party suggested the gradual introduction of education in Ukrainian language as follows: in the fifth form 30% of the classes will be in Ukrainian and 70% in the respective minority’s language (Romanian in this case); gradually the classes in Ukrainian will increase to up to 70% in the 12th form and 30% in the minority’s language.
“The law does not target the national minorities, but the reform of education,” Oleksandr Bankov says in the interview.
His explanation – lots of the pupils who haven’t learned Ukrainian, do not have the needed level to promote professionally. “In Ukraine university education is only in Ukrainian and the youngsters need proper knowledge of this language to reach college,” he added.
Ambassador Bankov explains that private education institutions can teach in any language. “Romania can set up schools and high-schools in Romanian language in Ukraine. They can use private schools as well as other supplementary forms of tuition as after-school,” the envoy says.
As of 2020, the kindergarten and the first forms will be in Romanian and the minorities’ languages. “We’ll do in such a way as to make the secondary education not stressful for the pupils,” the Ambassador says.