Education Reform

In September 2017, the Verkhovna Rada adopted an education reform that provides for 12-year school education, higher salaries for teachers and compulsory education in the Ukrainian language.

On September 25, the law on education was signed by President Petro Poroshenko. In his opinion, this document strengthens the role of the state Ukrainian language in the educational process. From 2020, national minority languages will be used for teaching in state schools up to grade 5, followed by a transition to Ukrainian.

It was the language issue that caused criticism from neighbouring countries. Romania, Poland, Russia and Hungary have already expressed their dissatisfaction with the new law. In particular, Hungary stated that this reform "may be a threat to the existence of national minorities".