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Vol. 41, Nº 76 (2023), 699-719
IEPDP-Facultad de Ciencias Jurídicas y Políticas - LUZ
Recibido el 14/11/22 Aceptado el 08/01/23
Problems of legal guarantee of
educational needs of national minorities
DOI: https://doi.org/10.46398/cuestpol.4176.41
Yurii Kovnyi *
Viktoriia Chornopyska **
Liudmyla Mikhnevych ***
Ivan Peresh ****
Mariana Hartman *****
Abstract
The aim of this study was to analyze the current international
agreements, the Ukrainian legislation on ensuring the educational
needs of its national minorities, the observance of their educational
rights and their compliance with international standards. The
study is conducted on the example of the educational needs of
Gypsies, Poles and Hungarians. The materials and methods
used made it possible to carry out analytical and research work,
identify shortcomings and oer clear proposals for the legal regulation
of the educational provision of national minorities. Also, a questionnaire
survey was conducted among representatives of national minorities
studying in educational institutions in Ukraine. The system of general
philosophical and scientic methods was chosen as a methodological
basis. It is concluded that, in general, Ukrainian legislation complies with
international and European standards of minority education, because it
contains rules and guarantees to ensure full understanding of the native
language of the national minority and, in the broadest sense, the legislator
managed to nd a balance between national, moral and cultural interests of
these groups of Ukrainian citizens.
Keywords: educational needs; national minorities; educational
institutions; inclusive legislation; ethnopolitics.
* PhD, lawyer. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1230-5050
** Doctor of legal sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of Civil Law and Process of the
Educational and Scientic Institute of Law, Psychology and Innovative Education of the Lviv
Polytechnic National University 79005, 1/3 Kniazia Romana St., Building 19, Lviv. ORCID ID: https://
orcid.org/0000-0002-3230-5971
*** Head of the Department of Constitutional and Criminal Law, doctor of legal sciences, Kyiv National
Economic University named after Vadym Hetman, 03057, 54/1 Peremohy Ave., Kyiv, Ukraine. ORCID:
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4774-079X
**** PhD, Associate Professor of the Department of Theory and History of State and Law Uzhhorod National
University Head of department (Theory and History of State and Law). ORCID ID: https://orcid.
org/0000-0002-3485-7278
***** Candidate of law sciences, docent, Theory and History of State and Law, Theory and History of State
and Law Uzhhorod National University. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3894-1589
700 Yurii Kovnyi, Viktoriia Chornopyska, Liudmyla Mikhnevych, Ivan Peresh y Mariana Hartman
Problems of legal guarantee of educational needs of national minorities
Problemas de la garantía legal de las necesidades
educativas de las minorías nacionales
Resumen
El objetivo de este estudio fue analizar los acuerdos internacionales
actuales, la legislación de Ucrania en cuanto a la garantía de las necesidades
educativas de sus minorías nacionales, la observancia de sus derechos
educativos y su conformidad con las normas internacionales. El estudio se
realiza a partir del ejemplo de las necesidades educativas de los gitanos, los
polacos y los húngaros. Los materiales y métodos utilizados permitieron
realizar un trabajo de análisis e investigación, identicar las deciencias y
ofrecer propuestas claras para la regulación legal de la oferta educativa de
las minorías nacionales. También, se realizó una encuesta por cuestionario
entre los representantes de las minorías nacionales que estudian en centros
educativos de Ucrania. Se eligió como base metodológica el sistema de
métodos losócos y cientícos generales. Se concluye que, en general, la
legislación ucraniana cumple con las normas internacionales y europeas
de la educación de las minorías, porque contiene normas y garantías para
asegurar la plena comprensión de la lengua materna de la minoría nacional
y, en el sentido más amplio, el legislador logró encontrar un equilibrio entre
los intereses nacionales, morales y culturales de estos grupos de ciudadanos
de Ucrania.
Palabras clave: necesidades educativas; minorías nacionales;
instituciones educativas; legislación inclusiva;
etnopolítica.
Introduction
The modern world is globally integrated, migration processes are
intensifying, and citizenship is no longer a universal, stable characteristic of
the individual. Therefore, the issue of educational space of ethnic minorities
in the era of global changes and state power transformations is especially
relevant.
Of additional interest is the problem of implementing the educational
rights of ethnic minorities, legislative consolidation, establishment of
measures to ensure and protect them, and the formation of a system of
guarantees for their implementation. This is due to the fact that the viability
of national minorities is a key issue in preserving the ethnic and cultural
diversity of the state. The formation of this group of citizens has its own
characteristics and requires a special system to ensure it.
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CUESTIONES POLÍTICAS
Vol. 41 Nº 76 (2023): 699-719
1. Research Problem
Proper legal policy in the sphere of national minorities denes a weighty
criterion of democratic state, is an indicator of the tolerance of society
and compliance with European values of civilized nations. The axiological
component determines the praxiological importance of having a holistic
mechanism for ensuring the rights of national minorities. At the same time,
there is a dissonance between the absolutization of the rights of national
minorities and the tendencies of protecting national state interests,
ensuring territorial integrity and citizenship. The problem of the research is
exactly the legal provision of educational needs of national minorities, how
in Ukraine the right of national minorities to education is legally observed.
The study focuses on such national minorities as Roma, Poles, Hungarians,
and Russians.
The legal provision of their extracurricular, school, vocational and
technical education is studied, the main problems are identied. The
purpose of this study is to analyze the existing international agreements,
Ukrainian legislation to ensure the educational needs of national minorities
and the observance of their educational rights.
The study reveals the issues of correlation of national and international
legislation, peculiarities of obtaining education by representatives of
national minorities, resolution of conict situations on provision of
educational rights of national minorities, gaps in Ukrainian legislation
and ways of their resolution, issues of international cooperation with
foreign partners to solve problematic issues of ensuring educational
rights of national minorities, Romanian legislation in the eld of ensuring
educational needs of ethnic minorities was analyzed, the level of general
satisfaction of educational needs of ethnic minorities, the impact of the
pandemic on the educational provision of ethnic minorities was analyzed.
2. Study methods
2.1. General Background
To implement the objectives of the study was carried out by certain
stages in a combination of analysis of theoretical material, legislation,
and performance of practical tasks. Such stages were: searching for state
and international legislation, searching for legislation of other countries,
scientic literature; analysis of the above normative legal acts and scientic
sources; comparing and comparing national legislation of Ukraine with
international normative legal acts; revealing problems in national legislation
in the sphere of national minorities education; conducting a survey among
national minorities population; providing suggestions for solving problems.
702 Yurii Kovnyi, Viktoriia Chornopyska, Liudmyla Mikhnevych, Ivan Peresh y Mariana Hartman
Problems of legal guarantee of educational needs of national minorities
The empirical basis of the research was questionnaire surveys of such
national minority groups as Roma, Poles, Hungarians, Slovaks, and
Russians. The system of philosophical, general scientic and special
scientic methods was chosen as the methodological basis. The humanistic
method, which establishes the axiological determinants of the role and
legal nature of the status of national minorities in the educational sphere,
was chosen as the main method. The integrated method allows combining
the knowledge and practice of education, pedagogy, public administration,
international relations, and law.
The synergetic methodology will be useful for determining the current
bifurcation point of educational rights of representatives of national
minorities and external paradigms of globalization inuencing them. The
methodology of the author’s survey made it possible to analyze the real
situation in the eld of ensuring educational competence of representatives
of national minorities.
3. Study results
Identication of problematic issues in the system of providing
educational services to national minorities, positive aspects of interaction,
taking into account the holistic mechanism of education in Ukraine is a
relevant doctrinal and practical issue.
The main ideology of the state policy regarding national minorities
should be the harmonization of interests so that, on the one hand, citizens
have the opportunity to continue their national and spontaneous traditions,
to learn their native language, to pass on to future generations, on the other
hand, attention should also be paid to the adaptation of traditional culture
of national minorities to the requirements of a globalized modern society
Through an author survey of national minorities established
The right to study the language of national minorities in Ukraine is
guaranteed and ensured at many levels, including both state and communal
property institutions and public institutions (national and cultural
societies). Such a policy denes a bilingual educational environment, where
the language of national minorities may be taught alongside the national
language of instruction. In general, the national legislation complies with
international and European standards of national minority education,
contains norms and guarantees to ensure full understanding of the native
language of the national minority, and in the broadest sense the lawmaker
managed to nd a balance.
Between the national and cultural interests of these groups of citizens
of Ukraine. The shortcomings of the lawmaking regulation of the covered
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problem in Ukraine, in our opinion, are as follows. Discrimination of
representatives of national minorities on the basis of their origin. Absence
in the Law on Extracurricular Education of a reference to the realization of
the right to education for representatives of national minorities. Ukrainian
legislation does not contain any peculiarities of acquiring knowledge and
skills of an appropriate level of education.
The right of national minorities to establish private educational and
training institutions is not stipulated by national norms, so discussions on
this issue may continue. It is recommended to bring Ukrainian legislation
into compliance with international standards. The experience of Romania
in the legal regulation of the educational needs of national minorities is
analyzed. Regarding the experience of Romania, in addition, we propose
to apply to the Ukrainian legislation a norm introducing a person, a
representative of this minority to the management of an educational
institution. For Ukraine, this issue is of geopolitical importance.
More than one hundred and thirty national minorities and ethnicities live
on its territory. To a greater extent, in analyzing the educational problems
of members of national minorities, scholars examine the problems faced by
Roma children in education, in particular the issue of possible restrictions
for equal access to education as a factor of a signicant barrier to quality
education.
Sina Van den Bogaert’s comprehensive monograph focuses on the
problem of segregation in the education of members of the Roma national
minority in Europe, focusing on the implementation of public international
law of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities
(Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, 1994)
Equality 2000/43/EC of the European Union (Van den Bogaert, 2018)
(Council Directive 2000/43/EC implementing the principle of equal
treatment between persons irrespective of racial or ethnic origin).
Some achievements focus on the issue of Roma education in individual
countries, in particular Bosnia and Herzegovina (Lukenda and Pavlović,
2018), Finland, Sweden, and Norway (Helakorpi et al., 2020), the UK
(Butterworth, 2019). Valuable for the analysis is a structural review by
representatives of the Norwegian school of sociology, which analyzed a
total of 151 peer-reviewed research articles published during 1997-2016.
This allowed them to identify a number of problems facing Roma
socialization and education: school absence, low academic achievement,
socioeconomic problems, cultural dierences, invisibility, teacher
competence, hostility, segregation, and false policies and activities
(Lauritzen and Nodeland, 2018). This review can help raise awareness of
the methodology form research questions in minority education.
704 Yurii Kovnyi, Viktoriia Chornopyska, Liudmyla Mikhnevych, Ivan Peresh y Mariana Hartman
Problems of legal guarantee of educational needs of national minorities
Much less often scholars focus on the educational needs of members of
national minorities in general. In general, the problem is addressed through
studies of their legal status, cultural national autonomy, and integration
problems in individual countries, in particular in Hungary (Cservák, 2018),
Belarus, the Czech Republic, Poland (Grabowska and Łukasz, 2020),
Great Britain (Willis, 2020), Ukraine (Toronchuk and Markovskyi, 2018),
Hungary, Estonia, Serbia and Russia (Prina et al., 2019), the Visegrad
Group V4 of Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia (Kichera,
2020). The problems of the formation of legal policy regarding the
status of national minorities in Ukraine (Tkachenko et al., 2021) and its
constitutional consolidation are relevant (Karp, 2018).
However, most of these works are of a narrow sectoral nature and do not
contain a comprehensive analysis of the system of providing educational
services for representatives of national minorities. The problem of ensuring
the educational rights of members of national minorities in Ukraine is
raised mainly at the level of political rather than scientic discussion. The
system of philosophical, general scientic, and special scientic methods
was chosen as the methodological basis.
The main method chosen is the humanistic method, which establishes
the axiological determinants of the role and legal nature of the status of
national minorities in the educational sphere. The integrated method
allows combining the knowledge and practice of education, pedagogy,
public administration, international relations, and legal science.
The synergetic methodology will be useful in determining the current
bifurcation point of educational rights of persons from national minorities
and external globalization paradigms aecting them. The author’s survey
method allowed us to analyze the real state of aairs in the area of
educational competence provision for members of national minorities.
The survey was conducted in four schools in Lviv and Uzhgorod
(Lyceum No. 45 of the Lviv City Council, which used to be a school with
profound study of the Russian language; Lyceum No. 10 named after Saint
Mary Magdalene of the Lviv City Council with Polish language teaching;
Specialized General Education School No. 4 with profound study of the
Slovak language, Uzhgorod and the Mishka Frede Ugrian Grammar School,
Uzhgorod).
The classical secondary education institutions chosen for comparison
are Lyceum No. 46 and No. 66 of the Lviv City Council. Requirements
for respondents: parents from national minorities, two or more children
study at the school (the above, in our opinion, will demonstrate a broader
picture and allow to disassociate from subjective evaluation of individual
character).
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CUESTIONES POLÍTICAS
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The number of respondents in each school - 42 people, sample by the
article was not conducted, the majority were mothers. Two people refused
to answer during the survey, which did not aect the overall result. The
statistical error is no more than 2%. The survey was conducted by lling out
questionnaires containing the author’s questions about the provision of the
educational process in their institution. The questions in the questionnaire
were structured so that respondents could rate the level on a ve-point
scale, where 1 point is very poor, 2 points are poor, 3 points are mediocre, 4
points are sucient, and 5 points are positive.
Statement of Main Points. Quality education promotes social engagement,
economic growth, and innovation. Therefore, the eld of education should
be the “springboard” that can optimally connect the interests of all groups.
National minorities have special interests in the context of preserving
traditions, customs, and languages. The latter is a determinant, indicating
the belonging of the legal policy of the state, its human-centeredness, and
humanism. National minorities, even in states with an advanced level of
education and law, remain at a disadvantage, often discriminatory.
According to the 2018 U.S. Education Report, some groups have
traditionally always struggled with learning, among them students of
national, ethnic, and racial groups, and for this purpose, the state operates
4,360 specialized educational institutions (The National Center for
Education, 2019).
Research in the United Kingdom in unison notes that Roma students
in this country have signicantly lower levels of education than their
peers (Butterworth, 2019). The demographic process is variable, national
minorities exist in every state and their numbers are not at a steady level.
Global transformations have intensied trends of increasing numbers of
members of the population studied.
The second factor in the growth of national minorities is the rapid
increase in the number of refugees. According to the latest UN report on
migration issues, 84 million people around the world were displaced by
persecution, conict, violence, human rights violations, or other serious
events in 2020. In Venezuela alone, 73% of the population has become
refugees to neighboring countries (UNHCR, 2020).
European Union states are currently experiencing a new wave of refugees
due to the hybrid means of warfare by the unrecognized president of the
Republic of Belarus (Koehler and Schneider, 2019). Ratied international
acts take precedence over national acts. The issue of the protection of
national minorities is regulated by acts of international law, as discussed in
previous studies (Czepek and Karska, 2021).
Among international instruments, the rst to be mentioned is the
Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic,
706 Yurii Kovnyi, Viktoriia Chornopyska, Liudmyla Mikhnevych, Ivan Peresh y Mariana Hartman
Problems of legal guarantee of educational needs of national minorities
Religious and Linguistic Minorities, adopted by UN General Assembly
Resolution 47/135 of 18 December 1992. (Declaration on the Rights
of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic
Minorities, 1992). It only indirectly mentions the activities in the sphere of
education that should be guaranteed by the state, with no special attention
to the right to education of national minorities.
However, the signicance of this act is important because it is the only
one at the international level that denes the value of protecting the rights
and freedoms of citizens from national minorities.
The main document at the regional European level is the Council of
Europe’s Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities
since 1994, to which Ukraine has acceded for three consecutive years.
Articles 12 - 14 of this Convention indicate the provision of educational
needs of minorities, draws attention to guaranteeing the teaching of native
language, studying it in educational institutions, proper training of teachers
and aids, as well as the possibility of the existence of private schools for
national minorities (The Framework Convention for the Protection of
National Minorities, 1994).
There are also regional norms of soft law. In particular, the Organization
for Security and Co-operation in Europe issued the Hague Recommendations
on the Education Rights of National Minorities, where the key ideology is
the requirement for states to nd an eective approach to national minority
rights in education (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe,
1996).
High international standards are developed at the highest level, agreed
by many states, and require implementation by countries at the national
and local levels. On the constitutional level in Ukraine, Article 53 states that
nationals are guaranteed the right to be educated in their native language or
to study their native language in state or municipal educational institutions
or through national cultural societies (Constitution of Ukraine, 1996).
Such constitutional dogma is typical for many European countries. For
example, positive in this sphere is the constitutional norm of Romania,
wherein article 32 (3) the right of persons belonging to national minorities
to study their native language and their right to education in this language
is guaranteed by the state (The Constitution of Romania, 1991).
A general comprehensive document in the sphere of education is the
Law of Ukraine “On Education,” where Article 7 denes the peculiarities
of education for members of national minorities (About education, 2017).
This normative act caused the greatest discussion in society and concern
on the part of the governments of European states, in particular Poland,
Hungary and Romania.
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The conict moved from the domestic to the international level when
Hungary blocked the organization of high-level political meetings between
Ukraine and NATO (Csernicskó, 2020). The problem is that states have
claried the norm as allowing instruction in a native language along with
the national language only for children up to grade 5.
The European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice
Commission), as the Council of Europe’s advisory body on constitutional
law, in considering the legitimacy of national law, pointed out that an
independent state has the right, moreover the duty, to promote the national
language, including among citizens belonging to national minorities, and
pointed out the shortcomings of the law: the lack of public discussion of the
norm with representatives of all national minorities (paragraph 53 of the
Opinion). Paragraph 67, 127 of the Opinion pointed out that the law does
not need to be amended and that future laws and regulations may correct
the inaccuracies (The European Commission for Democracy, 2017).
National legislation should be considered in the context of levels of
education. In Article 7 of the Law of Ukraine “On Preschool Education,”
one of the key tasks is not only to teach children to respect their native
language but also to instill a love for the language of ethnic minorities. At
the same time, the subordination obligation in Article 36 is also dened for
the parents of the child or the persons substituting them (About preschool
education, 2001). The Law of Ukraine “On complete general secondary
education” (On complete general secondary education, 2020) represents
the right to the language of national minorities in the broadest way.
This fact can be explained by its recent update, so the legislator focused
on the problematic aspects of legal ethnopolitics in the context of the
implementation of international standards and took into account the
problems pointed out by the Venice Commission. The key is Article 5 of this
Law, which states that in Ukraine the right to study the language of national
minorities is guaranteed and ensured at many levels, including both state
and communal property institutions, as well as public institutions (national
cultural societies). Article 12 of this Law denes the right to create classes
(groups) in the language of instruction of national minorities at the request
of parents.
Therefore, in general, the shortcomings indicated by the Venice
Commission are taken into account in the legislative act on secondary
education. The Law of Ukraine “On Higher Education” in paragraph 11 of
Article 44 provides the right of a person at will to receive an assignment
for external independent evaluation as a means of assessing learning
outcomes, the language of the national minority, provided that the training
was accordingly carried out in this language (On higher education, 2014).
708 Yurii Kovnyi, Viktoriia Chornopyska, Liudmyla Mikhnevych, Ivan Peresh y Mariana Hartman
Problems of legal guarantee of educational needs of national minorities
In general, the national legislation complies with international and
European standards for the education of national minorities, contains
norms and guarantees of providing a valuable understanding of the native
language of the national minority and, in the broadest sense, the lawmaker
managed to nd a balance between the national and mental and cultural
interests of these groups of Ukrainian citizens. The shortcomings of the
lawmaking regulation of the covered issue in Ukraine, in our opinion, are
as follows.
Discrimination of representatives of national minorities by the
characteristic of belonging to the state of origin. Thus para. 6. Article 5
of the Law of Ukraine “On Secondary Education” gives priority rights to
persons, belonging to national minorities of Ukraine and whose languages
are ocial languages of the European Union. At the same time, other
national minorities are not taken into account. The latter constitute the
largest three groups, including in the last census the Russians accounted for
17.3% of the total population, the Belarusians for 0.6%, and the Moldovans
for 0.5% respectively (State Statistics Committee of Ukraine, 2001).
The absence in the Law on Out-of-School Education mentions the
realization of the right to education for members of national minorities
(About Out-of-School Education, 2000).
We negatively assess another current normative act - the Law of Ukraine
“On Professional (vocational) Education,” which does not contain any
specics of obtaining knowledge and skills at the appropriate educational
level (On professional (vocational) education, 1998). The mentioned
above predetermines the dissonance of paragraph 5 of Article 7 of the
Law of Ukraine “On Education”, which determines the right of applicants
for professional (vocational) education to study languages of national
minorities as a separate discipline.
There is a need to bring Ukrainian legislation into conformity with
international and European standards recognized and ratied by Ukraine.
The Framework Convention, in Article 13, states that states recognize the
right of national minorities to establish their own private educational and
training institutions. Such a right is not provided for by national norms, so
discussions on this issue may continue.
The practice of applying the experience of foreign states, in particular
Romania, in the context of the emphasis on the territorial accessibility of
educational institutions for national minorities seems appropriate. Art.
10 (2) of the Romanian Law on National Education (LEGEA national
education, 2011) states that in each city or town, educational institutions
and educational establishments shall be established and operate with
instruction in Romanian language and, if necessary, with instruction in the
languages of national minorities, or instruction in the mother tongue in the
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nearest town, if possible. (In any town or city, educational institutions and
educational establishments with a branch in English and, as the case may
be, with a branch in the national minority languages shall be established,
or teaching shall be provided in the maternal langua in the nearest town if
it is possible).
Moreover, Article 45(7) species additional obligations of the state to
support pupils who have no opportunity to study in their native language in
their town by paying for their travel or by receiving free board and lodging
in a boarding school with instruction in the minority language where they
receive instruction.
The system of educational needs also includes a network of educational
institutions operating in the state and administrative institutions at the
state and territorial level, providing management in the eld of education.
The Ministry of Education and Science ensures the formation and
implementation of state policy in the elds of education and science and
is the main body in this eld among the central bodies of executive power.
The Ministry coordinates policy at the level of international cooperation,
the activity of which is analyzed in Table 1.
Table No. 01. Measures of international cooperation of the Ministry of
Education and Science of Ukraine with foreign partners during 2021 to resolve
the problematic issues of ensuring the educational rights of members of
national minorities
Countries of
cooperation
date Event title Problematic issues that
were considered
Moldova 18.11. 2021 working group on the
interests of the national
minority
cooperation in higher
education
Hungary 6.05.2021 meeting with
representatives of public
organizations of Hungarian
national minorities
identication of problematic
issues in education,
peculiarities of creating
curricula for Hungarian-
language classes
Hungary 21.09.2021,
12.05.2021 Ukrainian-Hungarian
interdepartmental working
group on education
consultations on
the conclusion of
a Memorandum of
Understanding; preservation
of instruction in the
Hungarian language in
general secondary education
Bulgaria During
August
2021
International summer
seminars on Bulgarian
language, literature, and
culture
preservation of the national
identity of the Bulgarian
language
710 Yurii Kovnyi, Viktoriia Chornopyska, Liudmyla Mikhnevych, Ivan Peresh y Mariana Hartman
Problems of legal guarantee of educational needs of national minorities
Poland 27.10.2021 advisory commission on
meeting the educational
needs of representatives
of the Polish national
minority in Ukraine
draft Agreement between
the Cabinet of Ministers of
Ukraine and the Government
of the Republic of Poland
on institutions of pre-
school, general secondary
education in Ukraine, in
which the Polish language
is studied and classes with
instruction in the Polish
language function, as well as
institutions of pre-school and
general secondary education
Source: According to the analysis of the ocial website of the Ministry
of Education and Science of Ukraine (2022).
A network of educational institutions operates to provide for the
educational and linguistic needs of members of national minorities. We
note that the introduced principle of decentralization of administrative
powers in education (Mariuts, 2016) and the autonomy of the educational
institution signicantly improves the situation because at the local level the
problems faced by members of national minorities are more visible. Such
principles are characteristic of most European states, clearly dened in
the legislation, for example in Romania it is stated in Art. 3 of the Law on
National Education.
It is important to point out that after the educational reform the network
of educational institutions is not reduced, which we evaluate especially
positively. Today there are still functioning secondary education institutions
in which teaching is conducted in Polish (4 schools in Lviv region, 2 in
Khmelnytsky, and one in Ivano-Frankivsk), but the number of students in
them is increasing, despite the general trend of decrease in the number of
children in Ukraine. So, as of 2011/2012, there were 746 students in the
Lviv region and 929 students in 2020-2021. Altogether during this year at
the expense of the state budget about 140 thousand copies of textbooks in
Polish were published.
As for representatives of the Hungarian national minority, the situation
in 2020-2021 is as follows: there are 110 pre-school institutions with
groups and 101 institutions with classes in the Hungarian language. There
are 68 institutions of general secondary education with instruction in the
Hungarian language. Almost 31 thousand copies of textbooks have been
published on state budget funds.
A major challenge for the education sector in any state is the possibility
to provide professionals with sucient professional competence to teach
persons belonging to national minorities. Generalization of the analysis of
the functioning of higher education institutions allows us to point out the
711
CUESTIONES POLÍTICAS
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sucient level of solving this problem. Detailed indicators are summarized
in Table 2.
Table No. 02. Functioning of institutions of higher education providing teachers
for members of national minorities
National
minority Number of educational institutions that provide
training in vocational specialties Number of
students in 2021
Polish 13 858
Hungarian 2 (Uzhgorod National University, Ferenc
Rakoczi II Transcarpathian Hungarian Institute) 1466
Romanian 6 327
Source: (Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, 2022)
For comparison, let us turn to the experience of Romania, here there is
only one educational institution with the Ukrainian language of teaching
(Lyceum named after Taras Shevchenko in Sighetu-Marmatia), although
it is the third-largest national minority, according to the last census it was
65,472 people (Population by ethnicity in censuses of the period 1930 –
2002, 2022). Such a number could provide for the educational needs of the
Ukrainian national minority. Ukraine provides signicant assistance to the
Ukrainian diaspora in Latvia, especially in the development of its cultural
and educational sphere.
Thus, work is underway to create a Center for Ukrainian Studies at the
Faculty of Philology of the University of Latvia. Thanks to the work of this
center, almost 100 students of the University of Latvia attend lectures on
Ukrainian language and literature. Among the domestic higher education
institutions, Drohobytskyi State Pedagogical University named after Franko
and Kyiv Pedagogical University named after M. Dragomanova are the most
actively cooperating with Latvian universities (Krasnozhon, 2019).
4. Case studies/experiments/ demonstrations/ application
functionality
The results of the author’s survey allow us to determine the general
state of satisfaction with the provision of educational services among
representatives of national minorities (Russian, Hungarian, Polish, Slovak).
Most parents are satised with the level of teaching, representatives of
the Polish minority are the most satised with the level - 4.6 points, the
lowest satisfaction was expressed by the Russian national minority - 3.6.
The overall average level of assessment reaches almost 4.2 points. Specic
results are presented in Diagram 1.
712 Yurii Kovnyi, Viktoriia Chornopyska, Liudmyla Mikhnevych, Ivan Peresh y Mariana Hartman
Problems of legal guarantee of educational needs of national minorities
Figure No. 01. Overall satisfaction with educational needs. Source: According to
the results of the author’s survey.
Educational competence is directly aected by the provision of the
necessary materials. For representatives of national minorities, this issue
is particularly acute because the translation of textbooks and their printing
requires additional organizational and nancial costs. Respondents noted
a sucient level of provision with textbooks and other teaching materials.
The average score for all groups is - 4.3 points. The Polish national minority
stands out, where the level is assessed as very high - 4.8 points. The results
are shown in Diagram 2.
Figure No. 02. The level of provision of the educational process. Source: based
on the results of the author’s survey.
Another contemporary synergetic problem needs additional analysis.
The pandemic threat that has existed for two years now brings about
changes in all spheres of social life, and educational competencies are no
exception. The entire education system has faced challenges such as the
withdrawal of schooling, social inequality, lack of access to technology and
the Internet, lack of digital skills, the shift to online learning, poor health in
school institutions, even the problem of restoring or closing the school year
(Vulpe, 2021).
The threat is worldwide. School closures can result in a loss of 0.3 to
1.1 quality-adjusted years of schooling, reducing the eective years of basic
schooling that students have achieved in their lifetime from 7.8 years to 6.7-
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CUESTIONES POLÍTICAS
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7.5 years. About 11 million students from primary to secondary education
may leave school just because of the eects of the pandemic (Azevedo et al.,
2020).
The peculiarities of teaching online are that the transition to such a
system is dicult for all subjects of the educational process, but certain
categories suer the most. Among them are socially disadvantaged segments
of the population, are orphans, children with special educational needs,
and this group also includes members of national minorities. The interface
oered by the government is common to all subjects, conducted in the state
language, which can already make it initially dicult to understand for
students, especially younger grades.
The legal educational policy does not provide additional inclusive
mechanisms and characteristics. Adding another diculty is the high
professional level of the teacher, it must be “a person with a rich, grounded
scientic background, clearly above the level at which he teaches”
(Ungureanu, 2020: 31).
Therefore, in addition to pedagogical skills, bilingualism and
technological skills and media literacy of teachers are necessary to provide
education for national minorities. This is quite dicult to provide, especially
in rural areas.
The results of our survey conrmed the existing problems. Specically,
on average, non-minority parents rated the level of distance teaching as
of February 2022 at 4 with a ve-point system. In contrast, the pandemic
score on the level of teaching subjects through the use of online instruction
among members of national minorities was 3.1, well below the level of the
comparison group. Representatives of the Hungarian national minority
were particularly dissatised - 2.8 points respectively. Specic results are
illustrated in Diagram 3.
Figure No. 03. Teaching levels during the pandemic. Source: Authors’ survey
714 Yurii Kovnyi, Viktoriia Chornopyska, Liudmyla Mikhnevych, Ivan Peresh y Mariana Hartman
Problems of legal guarantee of educational needs of national minorities
5. Discussion
The results of the study showed that in general members of national
minorities are satised with the provision of their educational needs. But
the presence of interstate conicts on this issue shows that countries have
claims about the legal regulation of education for national minorities.
Analysis of Ukrainian legislation shows that there are certain problems
and gaps in this issue, because there are still unregulated issues such as
preschool, vocational education, discrimination of national minorities
on the basis of country aliation. It is proposed to make appropriate
amendments to the Ukrainian legislation in this regard. At the same time,
it is important to maintain a balance between national interests and the
provision of national minorities.
Since the realization of the right to education for national minorities
requires additional funding, proposals should be made to improve the
legislation with this in mind. Therefore, this issue requires further research.
In addition, quite little scientic literature is devoted to the problems of
providing for the educational needs of individual national minorities, so
further research on this issue is important. The application of the experience
of other countries, in particular Romania, is positive.
But we consider it necessary to further investigate issues comprehensively,
comparing the legal regulation of educational needs of national minorities
in several countries. With the emergence of the global pandemic, providing
for the educational needs of national minorities has become even more
dicult due to the lack of appropriate means and legal regulation, and
therefore, the problem requires further elaboration.
Conclusion
The ideological basis of the ethnopolitics of democratic states should be
an optimal balance between national state interests and the cultural values
of national minorities, which is primarily ensured through the sphere of
education. Global transformations have intensied the tendencies of
increasing the number of national minorities due to global demographic
processes, in particular migration and ight.
The elements of the system of national minorities’ educational needs
in education in Ukraine have been identied: international, European
regional, and national legal acts; functioning of public authorities; complex
structure of educational institutions at all levels; additional organizational
and economic guarantees of educational rights provision.
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CUESTIONES POLÍTICAS
Vol. 41 Nº 76 (2023): 699-719
It is stated that, in general, Ukrainian national legislation meets
international and European standards of national minorities education.
Existing shortcomings are highlighted: discrimination against non-
European representatives of national minorities based on the characteristic
of their aliation with the state of origin; non-involvement of the
extracurricular educational system in the provision of educational needs of
representatives of national minorities; lack of opportunity to study in their
native language at the level of vocational education; a collision of legislation
in the eld of establishing pre-school education groups with the national
language of education; failure to provide opportunities to establish their
private educational and training institutions with the national language
of instruction; failure to resolve the issue of territorial accessibility of
educational institutions.
The results of the author’s survey allow us to determine a sucient
level of satisfaction with the provision of educational services among
representatives of European national minorities. The pandemic threat has
been proven to have a particularly negative impact on the education of
national minorities.
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