The third Petro Jacyk International Ukrainian Language Contest began November 9 in Kolodiazhne, Lesia Ukrayinka’s home village in Volyn. It was initiated by the Ministry of Education and Science, Canada’s Petro Jacyk Educational Foundation, and the Ukrainian League of Philanthropists. Last year it involved over five million children and teens. Every contest turns into a marathon lasting from November 9 until May 22, made up of several stages: district, regional, and national. One of the nominations is in the Ukrainian Diaspora category, since schoolchildren from other countries also take part. Several days before the event, Mykhailo Slaboshpytsky, executive officer of the Ukrainian League of Philanthropists, and Valentyna Strilko, chairperson of the contest’s supervisory board as well as president of the Yaroslav the Wise International Educational Foundation, shared their views on the Jacyk contest.
Today it seems worthwhile remembering how it all started.
Mykhailo Slaboshpytsky: Petro Jacyk visited Ukraine after the declaration of independence and saw that the situation with the Ukrainian language was quite complicated. I remember him saying that God forbid we turn into a nation of whiners complaining about everything, blaming fate, adversaries, and even ourselves... We shouldn’t try to do something global at this stage. We should start with something small. For example, with a Ukrainian language contest for children, let them compete and show just how well they know the language. The winners get nice prizes like in sports. The more children are involved, the better the chance that Ukraine will start using the mother tongue, respecting it, and will consider knowing it prestigious. Today, people respect expensive things. Two years after the contest started we see that Petro Jacyk was farseeing. What began as an ordinary language contest for school students has presently far exceeded the original format, gradually turning into a nationwide patriotic effort showing respect for the mother tongue.
Before the first contests some ministry officials said that awarding such costly prizes was not teaching the right lesson.
M. S.: Petro Jacyk said at the time that children received those prizes for good knowledge of Ukrainian, that their knowledge was the result of hard work (the prizes are from 4,000 hryvnias in Grade 2 to 7,000 in Grade 11, at the nationwide level). Jacyk insisted and had his way. Time shows that he was right. None of those children have been spoiled by their prizes and there are no complaints at the Ministry of Education and Science. Unfortunately, Petro Jacyk saw only the completion of the first contest and died shortly before the second one. We’ve been without him for a year now. After the first contest we received a lot of calls at the league, asking about the second. Petro Jacyk’s daughter Nadya told everybody that the second contest would certainly take place and that she would finance it.
Jacyk said, “We’ve started the contest and if we are supported by other volunteer organizations, like Prosvita, Union of Ukrainian Women, Ukrainian World Coordinating Council, and many others, we’ll join hands and assert the normal civilized status of Ukrainian in this country. Our children should know that this society isn’t indifferent to what language they speak.”
Why was the contest’s board of oversight set up?
M. S.: There were many reasons, but mainly we needed public control over the contest, timely information for schoolteachers and students, and to get rid of the barriers placed by the ministry bureaucrats originally in charge.
Valentyna STRILKO: They issued the directive appointing the second contest shortly before the date, and because of such short notice the whole project was on the verge of collapse... We had to be on constant alert; there were quite a few financial, organizational, and other problems even during the contests. For example, in the second round we realized that money sent to regional educational structures was being used to patch up budget holes, so we got that money under control and children got it in the form of presents...
Who are members of the supervisory board?
V. S.: Journalists, writers, scholars, teachers — people who really care about the Ukrainian language. Now and then we gather to plan our work, discuss the most pressing problems, share ideas, plan trips to the regions, attend various stages of the contest. This is hard painstaking work, and some can’t stand the strain, so we annually assess every board member’s performance and make rotations. The league pays us nothing, it’s all on a volunteer basis.
Why did you choose Volyn oblast for the third contest?
M. S.: Last year it was Cherkasy oblast, Taras Shevchenko’s homeland. This year, right after the final Ukrainian language show at the Ivan Franko theater, a touching letter was sent to the Ministry of Education and the league by Mr. Sapozhnykov, chairman of the Novovolynsk council, asking to start the third contest in that city. I’d like to dwell on that letter. There is a teacher of Ukrainian, an educator in Novovolynsk, called Feodosiya Pivnytska. She was on the jury of the first contest and got so enthusiastic, she saw to it that the second one became a major event in the city. Among the guests were Anatoly Pohribny, Liubov Matsko, and a number of others sincerely dedicated to the language problem in this country. The city was astir with the event and the local House of Culture was jammed. Prior to the contest everybody in the city wrote a dictation broadcast by the local radio company. We saw the winners: children, adults, men and women, some aged 80. They received prizes onstage from the city mayor. The awards ceremony was truly festive — and this in a miners’ city with the population representing over forty ethnic groups! Later we found out that everything had been organized by Feodosiya Pivnytska, she had knocked on all the doors, made arrangements, argued her case, and would not rest until the project had come to fruition. I thing that if every region had at least one enthusiast like her there would be no problems with the language in Ukraine.
V. S.: From now on every contest will start in a certain oblast. This is a very responsible task, because such an administrative region must set the tone for the whole language marathon for the year. Let me remind you again that all the contestants must take part in the first stage rather than those chosen by schoolteachers as showing good progress in the language. Let the children and young people compete; let them see what they can accomplish, how well they know and respect Ukrainian. As for the prizes, we also have quite a few consolation ones. Fifteen hundred prizes were awarded in the second contest...
Last year the Defense Ministry joined the Ministry of Education and Science in the contest. Willaxy other ministries be involved this year?
M. S.: I hope the Defense Ministry will be among the organizers this year too. Many still remember how well the contest was organized at, say, the Ivan Bohun Military College and at the Ukrainian Military Medical Academy. We had a call from the Ministry of Rail Transportation. They also run a number of educational establishments. Prior to the third contest, the board of oversight and the coordinating council contacted practically all the ministries. We hope they will respond. It was a shame that no institutions of learning under the Ministry of Culture took part in the contest last year.
Will the Ukrainian diaspora be represented in the third contest?
M. S.: I know that there are plans to hold the contest at Canadian Ukrainian schools. We have been approached by the School Council of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress. We also expect the Eastern diaspora to show more active participation. I’ve just returned from Russia. I met with the Mriya Ukrainian Community in the town of Ivanovo and was surprised to learn that they had no information about the contest. I must reproach our association for cultural relations with Ukrainians abroad (the former Ukraine Society) in Kyiv. Regrettably, Mriya isn’t the only ethnic community in Russia to complain about that association’s utter inactivity. We have asked them to help us, as we have the Ukrainian World Coordinating Council. It’s not that we want their financial aid. All we want from them is information and organizational support. You keep in touch with Ukrainian organizations in the Eastern diaspora, so why don’t you tell them about the contest? They will be happy to respond, because they’re looking for such projects for their youth, they want their young people to be aware of their ethnic roots. I’m particularly surprised to note the council’s passivity.
Some were critical about the tasks assigned the participants after the first contest.
M. S.: The tasks are worked out by the Ministry of Education every year. Journalists writing about them simply have never attended the regional stages of the contest, so they don’t have first- hand information.
I was especially impressed by the final round in Cherkasy. Tasks in writing were followed by interviews — actually, more than just interviews. One of the examination tickets read: Suppose you have an opportunity to speak from the Council of Europe’s podium. What Ukrainian problems would you mention? I heard one of the participant, a tenth or eleventh grader, do just that. Another task was a dialog with a current Ukrainian political leader. The contestant was to choose that leader and one of the examiners would act as Yuliya Tymoshenko, Petro Symonenko, Oleksandr Moroz, or someone else. What ensued was a real intellectual duel. It was then I realized that these young people really are Ukraine’s future. How very right Petro Jacyk was when he said to just wait and see. You’ve started the ball running, it won’t be merely a Ukrainian language contest, it will be something much bigger, for you will help find young nationally conscious citizens of Ukraine who will eventually form the nation’s elite.
During the second contest preferences for the first prize winners in admissions to institutions of higher education, were first mentioned.
V. S.: Yes, there are such preferences, although no instructions have been forwarded to all educational establishments of Ukraine. However, this year’s winner in the eleventh grade category, Tetiana Lazarenko, graduate of a village school in Kyiv oblast, was enrolled in the Institute of Philology of Kyiv’s Shevchenko National University without taking any entrance exams. One must give Rector Vasyl Skopenko credit, for he acted before the ministerial Regulations on the Inclusion of Contest Winners in the Lists of Preferred Entrants were issued. By the way, this year’s entrants submitted to the philology institute not only first, but also fourth, fifth, even sixth prize diplomas. This is quite an argument at admission time about one’s qualifications.
The school in the village of Hnidyn, Kyiv oblast, will now bear Petro Jacyk’s name...
V. S.: The idea was raised at a meeting of the supervisory board. We wanted to immortalize the name of that unique personality. A recent parents’ meeting at the Hnidyn school resolved to name the school for him. A request to this effect, signed by parents and teachers, had been forwarded to authorities this summer. There is a resolution of the Hnidyn village council to grant the school Petro Jacyk’s name.
Please tell us about those founding this contest.
M. S.: Over 200 founders this year, both in Ukraine and abroad (compared to 100 in the first contest). Of course, telling about each and every one of them would be quite difficult. Among the founders are Ukrainian families, private individuals outside Ukraine, contributors setting up prizes to commemorate their late near and dear ones, and several Canadian and US firms (by the way, the latter are not headed by ethnic Ukrainians). A list of the contributors and sums contributed was carried by Ukrainian and foreign newspapers. They were all supplied by copies of the diplomas awarded the winners. For example, a married couple in Toronto received a diploma and a letter of thanks with the winner’s address, so they were sure their money had gone to a school student in Zakarpattia or Dnipropetrovsk oblast or elsewhere. These people can meet and learn more about each other.
You know what, I would like to mention a person I’ve never met. Stanley Peterson from Canada, whose real name is Bohdan Patyk. He was born in Ukraine. When he learned about the contest he donated $55,000 Canadian. He couldn’t help but know that he was investing in Ukraine’s Ukrainian future.
As any successful undertaking, our contest has a lot of exponents and opponents. This is only natural. Petro Jacyk often said that if the dogs are barking it means that we are headed in the right direction. Some prominent people in Ukraine have criticized me and others like me (including in newspapers) for holding the contest jointly with the Ministry of Education and Science instead of by ourselves. That’s strange. These people can’t understand a simple thing: even if we wanted to do it ourselves, the project would have never gained its present scope without support from state authorities and their organizational capabilities. We could have never extended it to every school and university.
Will there be other contests?
M. S.: I believe that there will and that our opponents will eventually realize that nobody can monopolize patriotism, that one can’t assume that he or she is the only patriot in Ukraine. I would very much want many people to cast ambitions aside and join the contest project. A classic wrote that, whenever a common cause is in decay, you must forget your father and mother and dedicate yourself to your public duty. The Ukrainian language is in decay. People calling themselves patriots or national democrats must do something about it. If you don’t want to join our project, you don’t have to. Come up with your own; work out other such projects. I’d be happy to know that there are ten language contests underway in Ukraine. Go draw up the other nine projects! We’d all be doing Ukraine a great service.
