Ukraine favors applying best practices of Latvia in the field of the educational process at minority schools

Ukraine favors applying the best practices of Latvia, where the educational process at the schools of national minorities is already carried out in accordance with the system proposed by Article 7 of the new Law "On Education". This statement was made in the course of the meeting between the Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine Lilia Hrynevych and the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Latvia Juris Poikāns on October 23, 2017.

«Latvia is a reliable partner of Ukraine. It is essential for us to make detailed explanation of the attitude of Ukraine towards the new Law "On Education" to all our partners. Also, we are very interested in the experience of Latvia regarding the language issue. Your country has minorities and experience in resolving the said issue. Our approach, enshrined in Article 7 of the Law "On Education", is very similar to that already existing in Latvia», Lilia Hrynevych emphasized.

According to the Minister, a possible benchmark could be at least 60% of education curricula in the Ukrainian language and up to 40% in the language of the minority. Ukraine backs the said approach. It is foreseen that the number of subjects taught in Ukrainian will be gradually increased from fifth grade and will reach a ratio of 60 to 40 in sophomore year. However, each minority will have an individual approach, which will depend on the particularities of the minority and its pedagogical needs.

Lilia Hrynevych placed a special emphasis on the fact that the agreement on cooperation in the field of education, science, youth and sport was finally signed between Ukraine and Latvia.

In turn, the Ambassador of the Republic of Latvia  invited the Minister to pay a visit to Riga in order to discuss the educational challenges common to the countries.

It should be noted that the Ministry of Education and Science carries out consultations regarding Ukrainian attitude to Article 7 of the Law "On Education" with Austria that will preside over the EU Council.