You're reading: Expert: Language law could destabilize education system in Ukraine

The adoption of the law on the principles of state language policy could destabilize the education system in Ukraine, Director of the Education Monitoring Center Pavlo Poliansky has said.

“The adoption of the law on the principles of state language policy could result in even greater destabilization in the education system,” the center said in a press release, citing Poliansky as saying at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Wednesday.

Poliansky said that the law does not contain any innovations with respect to the rights of citizens to receive education in their native language. At the same time, in his opinion, the mechanical introduction of the law in the education system and the amount that this can cost could lead to conflicts, including interethnic conflicts.

“The shaking up of student contingents and a network of educational institutions could lead to interethnic conflicts in the student and education environment and destroy a common educational space,” he said.

As reported, the law on the principles of the state language policy in Ukraine, which significantly broadens the use of the Russian language and other minority languages in the country, came into force after its official publication on August 10. According to the document, if the number of native speakers of one of these languages is 10% or more of the population of the territory on which the language is used, then measures aimed at the use of regional and minority languages will apply.

Odesa regional and city councils, Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv and Sevastopol city councils, Krasny Luch Town Council in Luhansk region, Zaporizhia, Donetsk, Kherson and Dnipropetrovsk regional councils have approved a decision to declare Russian a regional language.

In addition, the Crimean parliament instructed the government to draw up proposals on the implementation of the language law by October 10, 2012.