This year’s competition of young linguists was held for the 12th time, despite all the problems the organizers of the competition had to face over the past two years.
“Our diplomas have not had the name of the Minister of Education for two years now. He is not very respectful of our language to be immortalized on our diplomas,” said Mykhailo Slaboshpytsky, member of the Organizing Committee.
Traditionally, millions of school and university students from all over Ukraine took part in the competition. As a result, nine school students (from 3rd to 11th grade) and five university students will receive the President’s Scholarship. The scholarship holders are Anastasia Kolotylo (Kyiv), Rostyslav Lesiuk (Odesa oblast), Viktoria Plakhotniuk (Cherkasy oblast), Olena Chaika (Mykolaiv oblast), Maria Kovalenko (Dnipropetrovsk region), Khrystyna Shalavylo (Lviv oblast), and others. Other young experts of Ukrainian received awards from the President of the Ukrainian League of Philantropists Volodymyr Zahoria, chairman of the National Union of Writers of Ukraine Viktor Baranov, the Ukrainian Women’s Association in Australia, president of the JSC “Obolon” Oleksandr Slobodian, head of “Prosvita” Pavlo Movchan, and others. The mentors of young experts in Ukrainian were also awarded with the Yulia Tymoshenko Prize.
In his welcoming remarks Patriarch Filaret said: “Petro Jacyk Competition is a great incentive for children and young people to learn Ukrainian language, which, unfortunately, has been forgotten by many Ukrainians. We all know well how important language is for the existence of a nation. Our opponents are also well aware of this and they do not want us to speak our native language. Active work of schools and churches is needed for the revival of the Ukrainian language. Schools and universities play the greatest role in this. Man of culture is one who knows his native language.”
Anna Herman, president’s advisor delivered a speech with greetings on the behalf of the president.
The next year’s competition will be hosted in Rivne region. The competition was founded in 2000 by a social activist and businessman of Ukrainian origin from Canada Petro Jacyk.
