Bulgarian Ambassador to Ukraine Krasimir Minchev during an October 3 meeting with Ukrainian Education Minister Lilia Hrynevych said that the new law on education in Ukraine "provides new opportunities for our children to have a good command of both Ukrainian and Bulgarian languages."
"Given the new opportunities offered by the reform, we would like to see that the children be able to achieve decent command of both languages in schools for national minorities. It's about the scope of language learning, about the quality of teachers, the approaches and methods of teaching, and it's about textbooks," Minchev said, according to the press service of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine.
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"The scope of learning the native language, as well as the list of subjects that will be taught in this language will be determined individually for each national minority. Such issues are approved at the Cabinet level," said Hrynevych.
She went on to say that before it is accomplished, "we must work together and come to a common understanding".
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The parties also agreed that to achieve success in introducing innovations in schools with the Bulgarian language of instruction, it is necessary to consult with representatives of the minority from different regions of Ukraine. The ambassador invited the minister to attend on October 11 a roundtable with the participation of all communities.
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On October 6, a meeting is scheduled between Minister Hrynevych and Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjorn Jagland, where the parties are to discuss the issue of examination and implementation of Article 7 (language clause) of the Law "On Education".
UNIAN memo. September 5, the Verkhovna Rada adopted the new Law "On Education" within the country’s education reform.
According to the law, persons belonging to national minorities of Ukraine are guaranteed the right to study in public education facilities having the language of a respective minority a language of instruction, along with the state language.
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Foreign ministries of several countries, including Romania, expressed concern about the language norms of the law on education in respect to representatives of national minorities.
In turn, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine assured that the language provisions of the new law did not violate the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages and the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto announced his country's intention to block any further rapprochement between Ukraine and the EU over the language row.