Russian comes back to Transcarpathian school as a second foreign language

The Order of the Ministry of Education and Science on compulsory learning of second foreign language in schools takes effect from the new academic year. Thus, starting from the 5th grade, students will learn a second foreign language. It may be any foreign language: be it Russian or other language of national minorities, the ZN.UA reports.

Equating the Russian to "second foreign language", although under the Constitution it is the language of national minorities, will expand its learning in Ukrainian schools, a columnist for education issues Oksana Onishchenko writes in her article.

According to the data collected from departments of education: 52% of schools have chosen German, 23% – Russian, 14% – French, 8% – English, 2% – Polish, 1% – Spanish.

As educators admitted, at various meetings they had been strongly encouraged to choose Russian as a second foreign language.

However, the reviewer noted, for some schools choosing Russian as a second foreign language may be the only option, because in many schools there is a serious lack of foreign language teachers – Oksana Onishchenko wrote in her article.