OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities supports multilingual education pilot programme in four regions of Ukraine

The office of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities (HCNM), in co-operation with the Education Ministry of Ukraine, organized a conference on 20 February 2020 in Kyiv for 60 stakeholders from the four regions of Zakarpattia, Chernivtsi, Odesa and Zaporizhzhia. The conference was in support of a pilot programme on multilingual education in 14 educational establishments in the four regions.

Participants presented their experiences and best practices, ranging from teaching and planning methodologies to useful textbooks and manuals for teachers. In working groups, teachers and school principals discussed the opportunities and challenges of multilingual education in their regions. Participants formulated recommendations on a range of topics, such as how to include parents in decision-making, and how to monitor and evaluate the process and results of the pilot. 

High Commissioner Lamberto Zannier recommends multilingual education as a method to balance the preservation and promotion of minority languages while supporting the integration of society through strengthening the role of the State language.

The HCNM and the Ministry will organize roundtables in the four regions in the upcoming months to share best practices with local stakeholders that did not take part in the pilot programme. Representatives from the Education Ministry plan to use the results of the pilot to make recommendations on the implementation of the Law on Secondary Education.