The linguistic aspects of the Ukrainian educational policy

Abstract

In accordance with the Constitution and the Law of Ukraine on Languages, de jure Ukraine is a monolingual state. However, Ukraine de facto is multilingual. The Ukrainian state language policy would like to solve the discrepancy between the de jure and the de facto situation in such a way that the language situation of the country should be harmonized with the codified legal situation. Namely, the unspoken aim is to turn Ukraine into a practically monolingual, a de facto Ukrainian-speaking state. Education is seen as ideal means to achieve these aims. At the given paper this will be supported by a lot of evidence. Thus, Ukraine,instead of fostering the present day ethnic and linguistic diversity, pursues the state model that is colourful from the ethnic point of view but homogeneous linguistically. The data presented in this study highlight the fact that this process involves heavy losses also for the Hungarian minority in Transcarpathia