Only 345 school children study Russian in Ukraine

As of 2024, a total of 345 school children received education in Russian or studied it as a foreign language in general secondary education institutions.

“Ukrainian has almost completely displaced Russian from the educational process. 99% of general secondary education institutions provide teaching in Ukrainian,” the Commissioner for the Protection of the State Language Taras Kremin noted.

According to him, in the 2021-2022 academic year, about 100,000 school children were studying Russian or learning it as a foreign language. In 2024, this number decreased a thousandfold — to 345 people.

In the 2024 Annual Report on the Status of Compliance with the Law of Ukraine “On Ensuring the Functioning of the Ukrainian Language as the State Language,” Kremin highlighted that over the past three academic years, the situation almost hasn’t changed as nearly all students are being educated in the state language.

In 2024, 17 classes remained where 345 students were receiving education in Russian (in the Kharkiv oblast), and only 109 school children were studying Russian as a separate subject (in the Dnipropetrovsk oblast).

The Annual Report of the Commissioner for the Protection of the State Language also indicated that the number of students being educated in languages other than Ukrainian and Russian amounts to 31,287. Among them:

• 13,683 (or 44%) received education in Hungarian in the Zakarpattia oblast.
• 16,448 (or 53%) received education in Romanian in the Chernivtsi, Zakarpattia, and Odesa oblasts. 

In addition, representatives of the Commissioner conducted a survey (an online questionnaire) in 2024 of participants in the educational process regarding the language situation in schools. According to the survey, which included 7,031 students, 18,788 parents and representatives of learners, and 4,000 teachers, the share of parents who stated that teachers provide learning materials and homework exclusively in Ukrainian increased by three percent (96% compared to 93%). However, responses from the teachers themselves showed a four percent decrease (89% compared to 93%).

The share of students who communicate exclusively in Ukrainian during lessons and breaks also decreased by eight percent. There are significant differences based on region of residence:

• the West – 74%
• the North – 40%
• the Center – 35%
• the South – 25%
• Kyiv – 27%, 
• the East – only 17% of surveyed children use Ukrainian during their studies.

“Children repeat the language behavior of teachers and parents. That is why it is crucial for adults to set an example — not to tolerate Russian, but to support Ukrainian,” emphasized Kremin.

In 2024, a total of 25 complaints were received from citizens regarding the activities of secondary education institutions, of which:

• five came from Kyiv; 
• five came from Kyiv oblast;
• four came from Odesa oblast; 
• three came from Lviv Oblast;
• two came from Kharkiv oblast;
• two came from in Chernihiv oblast;
• one came from Dnipropetrovsk oblast;
• one came from in Zhytomyr oblast;
• one came from in Mykolaiv oblast;
• one came from in Poltava oblast.

As reported, five companies, including two bookstores and three publishing houses, violated the requirements of the Ukraine law Article 26 of the Law on the State Language in the field of book publishing and distribution in 2023.

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Copy editing: Matthew Long