Parents win fight against closure of Donetsk Ukrainian language school

The Donetsk Administrative Court of Appeal has upheld the 30 January ruling of the Voroshylovsky Court in Donetsk which revoked the decision of the City Council to close Ukrainian language School No. 111. 

As reported, parents had learned of the planned closure a year earlier.  The civil suit on behalf of the parents was lodged by Iryna Kruhlova, a mother of two students at the school. 

The authorities had claimed that the school had a small number of students and that the students could study in other schools in the district. The community was outraged and asserted that the decision had been taken without public discussion.

Their suit mentioned numerous infringements, and also stressed that the 57% places filled was by no means the lowest in the district. Furthermore, there were no other Ukrainian language schools nearby, meaning that the children would have to change to a Russian-language school.

The parents held a number of protests and refused to move their children. During the court examination, the City Council’s decision was suspended, so the school resumed as normal on 1 September.  New information reported by UNIAN (on the basis of information proved by Maria Oliynyk, human rights activist representing the parents in court. 

Phtto from BBC Ukrainian Service