OSCE experts have recently conducted a comparative study on how the educational rights of Russians in Ukraine and ethnic Ukrainians in Russia are ensured. Ukraine has recently made public some preliminary information on the country’s situation, while Russia is just going to do so.
However Ukraine’s Ministry of Education and Science has already published unofficial information on the number of Ukrainian-language kindergartens, schools, vocational schools, and higher education institutions in the Russian Federation. The data contains numerous zeros in contrast to thousands and hundreds of educational establishments in Ukraine. This information has not been denied by Russia as yet.
Instead the representative of Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Andrey Nestorenko spoke about the “discrimination actions” of the Ukrainian authorities with regard to the Russian language and Russian-speaking population. He said he expected to receive an “objective assessment” from OSCE High Commissar on National Minorities Knut Volleb k.
The issue boils down to the political regime in the country, according to Pavlo POLIANSKY, Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Education and Science. It determines the government’s attitude toward the national minorities residing in the country and may (or may not) prompt the government to foster enforcement of their rights. Europe, the US, and even Cuba have Ukrainian-language educational establishments where, incidentally, not only ethnic Ukrainians but also local children study. Below is an interview with Poliansky, where he speaks in more detail about the monitoring.
Mr. Poliansky, what is the purpose of the research carried out by OSCE jointly with the Ministry of Education of Ukraine?
“Actually, it is the very prerogative and duty of OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities to study how the national minorities’ right is fulfilled in European countries and recommend the governments to take this or that measure in this sphere. Knut Volleb k made the decision to conduct bilateral monitoring and see to what extent the right of the ethnic Ukrainians to receive education in their native language is ensured on the territory of the Russian Federation and what efforts Ukraine makes to ensure the constitutional rights of the Ukrainian citizens representing the national minorities to receive education in their native language.
“The Ministry provided exhaustive information to the OSCE High Commissar on the way the educational rights of Ukraine’s Russian minority are ensured and drew his attention, for example, to the fact that in some regions Ukrainians, rather than minorities, are now facing difficulties in giving education to their children in the state language. For example, last school year, out of 562 functioning schools in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea 15 offered instruction in the Crimean-Tatar language and seven—in Ukrainian. In the rest of the schools the language of teaching was Russian. The proportion of the autonomy’s pupils who studied in Ukrainian made 7.3 percent, while those who studied in Russian made 89.4 percent. Is there any need for extra arguments for this evident fact?
“In the framework of the monitoring, the HCNM’s office conducted meetings with both countries’ officials and representatives of civic organizations and attended Russian-language schools in Ukraine. As far as I understand the mission has not succeed in visiting any Ukrainian-language school in Russia, because there is simply none.
“The monitoring was conducted first in Russia, in March 9–14, and embraced Bashkortostan, Voronezh oblast, and Moscow. On May 21–25 Ukraine was inspected: the Autonomous Republic of the Crimea, Lviv, and Donetsk oblasts, and the city of Kyiv. According to the procedures, the OSCE representatives informed each country taking part in the monitoring about the part of the monitoring research that referred particularly to it: the HCNM familiarized the Ukrainian statesmen with the preliminary results of the monitoring held in Ukraine, and the Russian side—of that in the Russian Federation, respectively.”
What are the main results of the research?
“These are only preliminary results and they are laid out in the HCNM’s recommendations to each particular country. During the meeting in the Ministry of Education and Science Volleb k was assured that the Ukrainian state will continue to pursue its generally acknowledged tolerant policy concerning the education rights of its citizens of all nations and nationalities. And I am speaking not only about the pre-school and secondary education, but higher education as well, specifically in Russian. So, at the moment, in educational establishments that have the 1st or 2nd accreditation levels over 59,000 students receive education in Russian, while there are 395,000 such students in universities. I want to emphasize that the information concerning Ukraine is absolutely accurate.
“How do we know about the situation in the Russian Federation? We receive information from our colleagues in Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, our embassy, and also via our liaisons with Ukrainian civic organizations on the RF’s territory—there are over 50 of them in 47 regions. Our information concerning the ensuring of the rights for education has not been denied as yet.
“I will give you some figures for comparison: the Russian-language kindergartens in Ukraine number 983 (with over 164,000 children), whereas there are no similar Ukrainian-language establishments in Russia. Russian-language secondary schools in Ukraine number 1,199, whereas the RF has none of such in Ukrainian language. Besides, 35 vocational schools in Ukraine teach in Russian, while Russia has none that teaches in Ukrainian. There are only zeros, with 4.4 million Ukrainians living in the Russian Federation, which makes three percent of the whole Russian population.
“Last year 1.5 million textbooks in Russian were published for the eighth-grade pupils at the expense of Ukrainian tax payers. In general, budgetary expenditures of all levels for maintaining the Russian-language educational establishments in Ukraine were over 3,195 million hryvnias. How much did Russia spend to maintain the Ukrainian-language schools? As many as some 200 (!) children are studying Ukrainian as a school subject there, whereas 1,292,000 students learn Russian as a school subject in Ukraine. I will only add that the pressrun of textbooks in national minority languages is considerably smaller than that of Ukrainian textbooks, and respectively, they cost several times higher. But we are carrying out this kind of policy because we are complying with the Constitution of Ukraine, fulfilling the rights of Ukrainian citizens to equal access to high-quality education regardless of their nationality. And we will continue to do so.
“We cannot see any symmetry on the Russian side. A person belonging to a national minority can obtain a free general secondary education in his/her native language in Ukraine. Many European, and not only European, countries are fulfilling the Hague Convention under which parents have the right to educate their children in kindergartens in their native language (in Ukraine, this is done in 983 establishments) and have them taught in their native language in primary school.
“Ukraine has long ago topped these standards. So, last school year 20,045 comprehensive schools, enrolling 4,438,383 pupils, functioned in our country last year. They included 16,909 Ukrainian-language establishments (3,271,703 pupils), 1,199 establishments where the teaching is in Russian (403,719 pupils), 89—in Romanian (18,239 pupils), 66—in Hungarian (11,644 pupils), 15—in Crimean-Tatar (2,919), six—in Moldavian (1,903 pupils), and five—in Polish (1,180 pupils).
“Besides, in 1,725 comprehensive schools the subjects were taught in two or more languages.
“In 2008–09, in Ukraine the total of 3,608,725 pupils received education in Ukrainian, 779,423—in Russian, 21,671—in Romanian, etc. “
Did Russia have Ukrainian-language schools and kindergartens before?
“It did have some. By mid-1930s such schools used to function in Moscow, Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), Kursk, Belgorod, Rostov, Voronezh oblasts, the Kuban, the Far East, and Siberia. In 1932–33 they were closed. In Ukraine Russians are exercising their constitutional right to send their children to Russian-language schools. Instead there is barely any favorable political climate of this kind for Ukrainians in Russia. They cannot invent anything better than to say that people ‘don’t want’. Don’t want or do not dare?”
Does Ukraine’s Ministry of Education cooperate with its Russian counterpart in terms of opening school? Can the ministry influence the situation somehow?
“Both in Ukraine and in Russia, schools are opened and supported primarily by the local authorities and, respectively, it depends on the standpoint of the authorities. The ministry can conduct monitoring and assist. I think when this monitoring will be discussed in the EU structures, Russians will publicize their position and their vision of the future of this question. Although we are not standing aside from this problem, we cannot interfere in another country’s affairs.”
As far as I know, in the Czech Republic, Austria, Georgia, and even Cuba the state supports the community, and Ukrainian educational establishments are functioning there.
“Many Ukrainians live abroad, and there is the widespread practice that not all of these schools are under Ukrainian jurisdiction. These are schools established by Ukrainian communities with more or less support of the foreign governments. For example, there is a Ukrainian gymnasium in Riga, which is funded by the Latvian state, while we provide it with textbooks and carry out teacher exchanges. A similar gymnasium named after Mykhailo Hrushevsky exists in Tbilisi: this is a Georgian educational establishment, where children study many subjects in Ukrainian. One should not think that exclusively ethnic Ukrainians study there: nearly half of them are local children.
“In Canada and the US there is a wide network of classes where subjects are taught in Ukrainian. It is interesting to children, because Europe and the world have become multicultural, exchanges are taking place, which is nothing but beneficial for children. I can assure that at least in two Canadian provinces, Alberta and Saskatchewan, one can know only Ukrainian, and live absolutely happily with it. The reason is the good political climate in those countries and good attitude of their society to Ukraine and Ukrainians. Therefore, parents who take their children to educational institutions to study in Ukrainian are not afraid that they will have any problems because of that.”
What can you tell about the assimilation tendencies among Ukrainians, specifically those residing in Russia.
“This may be viewed from the viewpoint of globalism. One can use the word ‘assimilation’ or ‘integration.’ If Ukrainians (and not only Ukrainians) live in America, Europe, or Canada for many years, preserving their language, traditions, and religion, while remaining at the same time good citizens of their states, we are speaking about integration. But if Ukrainians are afraid of positioning themselves as Ukrainians, communicating among themselves in their native language, and do no dare demand Ukrainian-language schools for their children, these are, I think, the results of assimilation.
“Environment tends to influence people, and I guess that the Ukrainian environment also influences people of other nationalities who reside here. Where is the boundary between assimilation and integration? If a state provides the national minority an opportunity to have its own educational establishments, publish books, and work in mass media, the representatives of each peculiar nation have all the possibilities not to yield to assimilation.”
One wishes there would be more Ukrainian kindergartens and schools in the Crimea and eastern and southern Ukraine. What is being done to this end?
“First and foremost, there is a need for explanatory work with the parents. We take care to facilitate the community’s desire to exercise their right and have children educated in their native language. For example, there is a Ukrainian-language gymnasium in Simferopol. This is a very popular educational establishment, which is one of the best on the peninsula. Naturally, parents who see its wonderful conditions for education and good teachers send their children there.
“It has always been this way. People do something when there is a need for it. In particular, there is a need to have a good command of the state language.
“Communicating with young people, I have come to the conclusion that now the young generation is showing an example to adults, because the political blabbing about the alleged ‘infringement’ of the Russian minority’s rights in Ukraine comes from adults, not youth.
“Young people do not take this to heart: in their environment there are no discussions on who uses what languages; the educated young people know the state language and respect their native one, if it is not Ukrainian. All those speculations are voices from the past. Young Ukrainians, no matter what blood is running through their veins, think in terms of 21st-century century categories. And this gives me the greatest hope.”
