On real “efficiency”

In an age of information technologies, when knowledge is paramount, the Donetsk community is determined to resist the closure of local Ukrainian-language school. The power of local authorities to pick the language of instruction has a devastating impact on the area’s Ukrainian-speaking establishments. The Day recently wrote about this. “The schools are inefficient,” a local official says. Apparently, they do not understand that this notion cannot be applied to education. If we start talking business than we must also take into consideration the premium that knowledge and personal development hold in today’s world.

The parents of Donetsk school No. 136 students, where the language of instruction is Ukrainian, recently protested the liquidation of the school, which falls within the “optimization” program launched by local authorities. “I am Russian speaking, but I sent both of my children to the Ukrainian speaking school on purpose,” says Oksana Nechyporenko, one of the initiators of the protest act. “I look to the future and I realize that speaking Ukrainian, knowing and understanding Ukrainian culture is to my children’s benefit.” The parents are indignant as there are only Russian schools in the Budionnivsky district, so the children have no place to go.

Donetsk authorities offered the parents a solution: to transfer their children to the Russian school No. 120, which is at 40 percent of its capacity (while No. 136 is much fuller). The parents are tired of having to defend their choices in courts through the use of ethical arguments. Thus, they have switched to more mundane issues. “We saw the school No. 120,” Oksana says, “Although it was built 17 years ago, it is falling apart. Our school was properly reparied, mostly for the parents money. My kid studies in the second grade. Our class spent 15,000 hryvnias on repairs as of today (we have all the receipts). We wanted to make our school a better place for our children. Everybody gave money, even a mother of ten!” The parents also say that recently a large amount of money was given by the local authorities for roof and soil reinforcements. “Perhaps the authorities repaired the school not for the students, but had other plans for the building?” the parents ask.

“My parents and I studied at this school. Now I want my kids study there. Because of some commercial interest my kids have to be deprived of a future in their own country? You know, if you do not speak the national language, you will not achieve anything. I want my precocious son to fulfill himself,” Yevhenia Bondarenko, mother of a first grader, complains. “What will happen to the first grade teachers, who cultivated a love for learning in me, who showed me that learning is easy?!”

It is interesting that Petro Symonenko, prominent politician and leader of the Communist Party of Ukraine, graduated from the school No. 136. By the way, he also contributed to the school repair (his commentary can be found below).

COMMENTARIES

Petro SYMONENKO, lawmaker, leader of the Communist Party of Ukraine, Donetsk school No. 136 graduate:

“This issue should be considered from a systemic perspective. Why do the schools close down? Today the death rate is higher than the birth rate. Lack of financial and material support is a problem that was generated by this political system and its programs, which keep destroying Ukrainian schools since independence. About 2,000 village schools were closed in this period! The main achievement in education during our independent years was closing schools and complicating the lives of village and city children.

“School No. 136 is really close to me. I graduated from it and I know every corner of it. The school No. 120 is filled to 40 percent of its capacity, while school No. 136 – to 60 percent. I think they should think about what to do and how to do it to keep and help the pedagogical staff, to make everything comfortable for the children, so that they would graduate successfully and have an opportunity to go to school in their neighborhood. In our case they will have to cross the road, which is dangerous for them! That is why I will do everything to address the Minister of Education and the local authorities to save the school. And in each particular case they should organize everything so that it would be comfortable for the children and teachers. Each school has its story, and the graduates of each school can take pride in it.”

Natalia RUDENKO, director of Simferopol Ukrainian Gymnasium:

“I am surprised by the fact that they are closing schools in Donetsk oblast, which is a native land for the famous Ukrainian poet Volodymyr Sosiura, who made a great contribution to the development of Ukrainian language. As we know from history, the Donetsk region and the Donbas in general is an old Ukrainian region, and Ukrainian traditions go deep there. That is why the decision of the authorities on closing the schools is unnatural and not objective. This decision is not aimed at developing our identity but at developing a foreign culture at the expense of our own. This is Russification.

“The Crimea is more russified than the Donbas but there is a great demand for Ukrainian education. We have a tough competition as many students want to study at our gymnasium. It gives them opportunities to proceed with education and work not only in the Crimea but anywhere in Ukraine. I believe that the authorities should satisfy this demand to have Ukrainian education in Donetsk oblast, rather than ignore it.

“Ukrainian education has good prospects and the ‘From Native to Nationwide Language’ project proves it. It was supported and financed by the Verkhovna Rada of the Crimea and it caused great interest beyond the autonomous republic. Though we did not count on others even teachers from Dnipropetrovsk participated in the events, and we were very glad that people came from beyond the Crimea. Within the framework of the project we held a lot of interesting events, together with partner organizations. There were workshops for the teachers, a ‘Main Directions in National Education’ roundtable, lectures, open lessons, debates between teachers and students, seminars for the teachers and psychologists etc. Not a single project participant doubted that modern education has to be national, and in Ukraine it has to be Ukrainian, although the students should also learn about the world’s cultural heritage. That is why closing a Ukrainian school in the old Ukrainian Donbas region is a great mistake of the authorities — it is an act against their own nation and its future. Ukrainian authorities cannot do such things!

“We publish the book Development of Modern Education based on the materials of this project. It includes accounts of the experience of hundreds of teachers in organizing national education. The applicants come from all over Ukraine, which shows that the demand for Ukrainian education prevails in Ukraine. And the authorities have to support this direction, which is only natural for a sovereign nation.”