Ukrainian children only study Russian one or two hours a week

Schools in Kiev only spend 1-2 hours a week teaching Russian. As a Rosbalt correspondent reports, this was announced on August 28 at a conference of Russian language teachers in Kiev.

According to Zhanna Koshkina, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian Ministry of Education and Science, most schools in Kiev now teach in Ukrainian. Local authorities decide how many hours are devoted to learning Russian as it is financed by the local budgets. As a result, according to Ms Koshkina, Russian language is only taught about 1-2 hours a week in most Kiev schools between the fifth and ninth forms.

Russian is now taught less than English despite the fact that it is spoken by most residents of Kiev. As a result, specialists from the Education Ministry and the Pedagogical Institute have created special textbooks to provide a communicative course in Russian. The course basically aims to provide learners with some knowledge of Russian as a spoken language.