Hungary is demanding that the draft law "On Secondary Education" should be agreed with the Hungarian national minority.
Minister of Education and Science Lyliya Hrynevych announced this to reporters, the Ukrainian News Agency reports.
"There is an important condition: that we agree the draft of the law on secondary education with the Hungarian minority, since this draft details the model of education that will be used in schools... Now, they do not like the draft law on secondary education. They are already talking about it despite the fact that it has not even been considered in the first reading. It is pure politics, which has nothing to do with protecting the interests of citizens living in Ukraine," Hrynevych said.
According to her, negotiations with the leaders of the Hungarian national minority are scheduled for Wednesday, July 11.
Hrynevych recalled that Hungary had previously demanded that the Ukrainian authorities teach all subjects in the Hungarian language in schools where Hungarian ethnic minorities study.
"Of course, we presented our position to them … and repeatedly stated during negotiations that we cannot change anything. Children being educated in Ukrainian secondary schools and are citizens of Ukraine should be able to know the Ukrainian language perfectly, which will give them the opportunity to receive higher education in Ukrainian universities," the minister said.
Currently, according to her, Hungary is insisting on implementation of the Venice Commission’s recommendations, which, according to the Ukrainian authorities, are reasonable, and Ukraine has committed to implementing them.
According to Hrynevych, the Venice Commission is not demanding the Ukrainian authorities change the Education Law’s Article 7, which contains the law’s language provisions.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, Ukraine and Hungary discussed guarantees that private schools will be able to freely choose their languages of instruction on June 22.
Hungary has said that it is hoping that its conflict with Ukraine over the language provisions of Ukraine’s Education Law will be resolved before the summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) that is scheduled for July.
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