🇷🇴🇺🇦 Romanian students in the village of Frecăței, Odesa region of Ukraine, are at risk of losing their local high school due to educational reforms in Ukraine. Parents accuse an official from the Rani city council of exerting pressure to prevent them from transferring their children from Ukrainian language classes to Romanian language classes.
The mixed high school in Frecăței has 106 students in Romanian language classes and 115 in Ukrainian language classes. The new legislation requires a minimum number of students to maintain the upper classes, and the parents hope that transferring 7-8 students to Romanian language classes can help preserve the institution. According to them, the head of the education department, Lilia Bondarenko, described the initiative as "separatist". Parents also claim that they were forbidden to speak Romanian during the meeting. If the high school closes, the students will have to travel to another town, which is difficult for families given the power outages and the ongoing war. Anatol Popescu, president of the Association of Romanians "Besserbia" in the Odessa region, noted that similar situations exist in other communities.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Andrey Sibiha, stated that he would investigate the situation, and emphasized that the rights of minorities, especially students, should not be restricted.