Entries RSS Feed Share Send to Facebook Tweet This Accessible version

Ukraine bans teaching in minority languages

September 13th, 2017

An independent conservative columnist welcomes the unity of Hungarian political parties in the face of the new public education act passed by the Ukrainian Parliament which stipulates that after the 4 years of the elementary school, schoolchildren must be taught all subjects in Ukrainian.

On Válasz, Szabolcs Vörös finds it natural that Hungarian political parties should protest against the ‘shocking step’ taken by Ukrainian legislators and call on President Poroshenko not to sign the law. Nevertheless, given the deeply divisive atmosphere of Hungarian politics, Vörös still describes their move as a positive achievement which has at least established ‘a national minimum’.  In a review  of reactions on the Ukrainian side posted an hour later, Vörös writes that Ukrainian politicians have added insult to injury by arguing that schools are financed by the Ukrainian taxpayers and therefore are rightly expected to teach in Ukrainian. He also finds absurd a statement by a leading Ukrainian MP who called the new law a compromise which is only opposed by Hungarian nationalists.

Tags: ,