Ukraine expands minority language rights in education

The Ukrainian parliament has passed legislation expanding the rights of national minorities to receive education in their mother tongues. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed the law into effect following a vote of 266 lawmakers.

The amendments specifically target minority languages that are official languages of the European Union, including Bulgarian, Romanian, Hungarian, Slovak, and Polish. While Ukrainian remains the primary language of instruction, the law guarantees the use of minority languages in teaching, educational documents, exams, and general communication within school buildings and grounds.

Schools where more than half of the students are taught in an EU-official minority language may receive special status as national minority educational institutions. This measure is seen as a significant step toward Ukraine’s EU integration, addressing long-standing concerns from neighboring countries such as Hungary and Romania regarding the educational rights of their respective communities in Ukraine.