Vienna schools to include Ukrainian as an official second foreign language

Starting this September, the Ukrainian language will be included as an official second foreign language in select schools of Vienna, Austria. The development was reported by the Media Center of the Ukrainian Community in Vienna on Jan. 8.

At the initial stage, Ukrainian language courses will be offered to students from the 5th grade of upper secondary school (Oberstufe), corresponding to the 9th year of study. Two Vienna schools have been designated to introduce the subject: BORG 3 (Landstraßer Hauptstraße 70) and GRG 15 (Diefenbachgasse 19).

The launch of the courses will depend on a sufficient number of student applications. The Ukrainian embassy in Austria has called on the Ukrainian community in Vienna to support the initiative and to select Ukrainian during subject registration for the upcoming academic year.

The inclusion of Ukrainian in national education systems abroad continues to expand. In December last year, Ukrainian became an official subject in public schools in Curitiba, Brazil. In July, Ukrainian was added to school curricula in Poland. In May, France’s Ministry of Education launched a pilot project introducing Ukrainian as a second foreign language in collèges and lycées.