Educational Policy Analysis concerning the national minority rights in the context of Ukrainian Law on Education Amendments (Article 7: Language of Education)

Abstract

The way of Ukraine towards the full membership in the European Union may be blocked because of the opposed position of the Hungary leaders – the Prime Minister Victor Orban and the Minister of Foreign Affairs Peter Siyarto many times expressed various demands to Ukraine concerning the national minorities status, namely their right to get education in their native languages. Indeed, the right to education is fundamental in the countries over the civilized world. At the same time, amendments to the Law of Ukraine "On Education" from 2017, aimed primarily at reducing the impact of russification and strengthening the status of the Ukrainian language as the official State language, created certain restrictions for representatives of national minorities on this issue, also diminishing the possibility to study in their native languages. This led to the deterioration of Ukraine's relations with some neighboring states and caused the blockade of the Ukrainian path to NATO. However, the amendments to the Law on Education from 2023 are aimed at improving the situation. As we talk about the public policies, mainly the educational and language policies, it is reasonable to base our investigations on the methodology of Public Policy Analysis which is well developed in the World Political Science but is rarely exploited in domestic political studies. Namely this article offers consideration and analysis of changes made to the Law "On Education" based on the three methods: the "garbage can" model, analysis of alternatives, and forecasting with retroductive scenario development. We show that the main policy problem for introducing the changes is the implementation of recommendations from the European Commission necessary to continue Ukraine's path to the EU. The efficiency of these changes in this sense is to expand the rights of national minorities to study in their own language, while maintaining the status of the Ukrainian language as the leading one in obtaining education.