Berezhna on pro-Russian school in Kyiv: This case confirms education and culture are matter of national security
Deputy Prime Minister for Humanitarian Policy, Minister of Culture of Ukraine Tetiana Berezhna says in order to establish all the facts of the activities of the pro-Russian underground school on the territory of a monastery in Kyiv, it is necessary to wait for the investigation of the State Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).
"We need to wait for the investigation of the Security Service of Ukraine in order to establish all the relevant facts, understand the circumstances of the case, what happened in that place, who allowed this to happen, in order to make a reasoned decision on the side of the state," Berezhna said on the air of Social. News on Wednesday.
She also said this case once again confirms that education and culture are a matter of national security.
"Because, if this happened, then such an impact on Ukrainian children, on the Ukrainian young generation is a huge threat to our state, to the people in our state. All such cases that confirm that there is an invasion of our culture and education will need to be eliminated as those that contradict, counteract and do not contribute to the national security of Ukraine," the deputy prime minister said.
As reported, Slidstvo.Info exposed an underground school operating in a monastery of the Moscow Patriarchate in Holosiivsky district. Journalists established that 60 children study in the school, which is called a "family club," from grades one to nine. They are taught according to Soviet textbooks, and the schedule includes the subject "Slavic language" which is actually Russian. Journalists also managed to establish that two official schools are covering up the activities of a pro-Russian organization – the documents of these 60 children are there and they pretend that the children are studying there.
Minister of Education and Science Oksen Lisovy gave a verbal instruction to the head of the State Service for the Quality of Education of Ukraine to immediately begin an inspection of institutions in which children were fictitiously registered as students.
Later, under the procedural guidance of juvenile prosecutors of Kyiv City Prosecutor's Office, investigators of the Main Department of the Security Service of Ukraine in the city of Kyiv and Kyiv region began a pre-trial investigation based on the facts made public by journalists of Slidstvo.Info regarding the underground school on the territory of the monastery.
Educational Ombudsman Nadia Leshchyk states the activities of the pro-Russian underground school on the territory of the monastery in Kyiv show signs of a number of violations: indoctrination of children, propaganda and violation of the principles of the state policy of the national memory of the Ukrainian people and the law on decommunization; violation of children's rights to education; illegal provision of educational services; violation of licensing requirements by educational institutions (signs of possible fictitious enrollment of students, illegal receipt of educational subsidies, forgery of documents, etc.).
