KIEV, June 22 (Xinhua) -- Visiting Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto on Friday urged the Ukrainian parliament to adopt a legislation on extending the transition period for implementing the controversial education law.
According to Interfax-Ukraine news agency, Szijjarto said that Hungary hopes that the transition period will be extended by three years to 2023 in accordance with the recommendations of the Venice Commission.
"We also expect the implementation of the recommendation, which envisages that private schools will not be the subject of the education law," Szijjarto said after Ukrainian-Hungarian consultations in Beregove town in western Ukraine.
In September 2017, Ukraine adopted the law, which makes Ukrainian the first language in secondary and high schools.
The legislation allows students to learn other languages as a separate school subject.
A string of countries, which have large ethnic groups in Ukraine, have voiced their worries that the legislation would deprive the national minorities of the right to learn in their mother tongues.
In particular, Hungary, Romania, Poland and Russia have expressed concerns over the bill.
