Contest Raises Profile of Ukrainian Language

5 million students take part in competition initiated by Canadian philanthropist

By Olena Wawryshyn

 “It’s better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.” This ancient Chinese saying is one that Mykhaylo Slaboshpytskyy, an organizer of the annual International Ukrainian Language Contest in Honour of Petro Jacyk, quoted last fall speaking to Toronto groups and donors about his work.         

It is an attitude that the late Canadian philanthropist Petro Jacyk, who initiated the contest, no doubt also embraced.  In the late 1990s, Jacyk, concerned about the future of the Ukrainian language in Ukraine, provided funding for a contest to encourage children in Ukraine to learn and speak Ukrainian.

Now in its 6th year, the contest is having an ever-increasing impact on the use and profile of Ukrainian among school-children in Ukraine. Initially, about 10,000 children took part. Then, Ukraine’s Ministry of Education got on board, joining the Petro Jacyk Educational Foundation and the League of Ukrainian Philanthropists (headed by Slaboshpytskyy) as one of the sponsors.  As a result, more than 5 million school-age and high-school students now take part in the competition.

In addition, the contest is held in 10 neighbouring republics–Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan–where there are large communities of Ukrainians.

The contest also has an impact on the children’s parents and families, who also become more familiar with the language as they help them prepare for the competition.

“There is no other effort where we get that kind of penetration in Ukraine. That’s what I think is incredible about the program,” says Toronto lawyer Eugene Zalucky, who is a board member of the Petro Jacyk Educational Foundation.

“Peter Jacyk was a pragmatist. He understood very well that it’s too late to teach the millions [of adults] who speak Russian…you have got to start with the children,” says Zalucky.

This past fall, on November 9, Zalucky had the opportunity to attend the opening ceremonies of the contest in the city of Simferopil in Crimea as a special guest. There, he got to see first-hand how the contest is run.

The opening ceremony takes place in a different city every year, but is always held in a prestigious venue amid a great deal of pomp and circumstance. A concert and appearances by dignitaries and well-known Ukrainian writers and poets kick off the contest, which runs for six months until May, when the final winners are announced.

Zalucky, representing the Petro Jacyk Educational Foundation, was among the guest speakers at the opening. In his speech, he stressed that there are many individuals in the diaspora who speak Ukrainian and are committed to preserving and promoting the Ukrainian language.

Congratulatory addresses from President Victor Yushchenko and Volodymyr Lytvyn, the head of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s Parliament, were read during the ceremony, which was held at Simferopil’s impressive, new Ukrainian school.

The school’s facilities are such that “by our [Canadian] standards, it would be considered a top school,” says Zalucky. 

Everything relating to the contest is always done at a very high level, says Slaboshpytskyy.

The aim is to make children feel that Ukrainian is an important language and proud to speak Ukrainian. “The more prestige, the more thrilled these kids are,” adds Zalucky.

The opening ceremony also marks the first stage of the competition, when winners at the school level are awarded prizes.  The contest has five levels: school, city, region, oblast and national.  At each level, prizes are awarded, and about 2,000 children in total receive a prize.

The stakes at the national level are high. Top national winners who are in secondary school receive 7,000 hryvni or, CDN$1,400–a significant sum in a country where professionals often earn the equivalent of about $400 per month–and also get a university scholarship.

Winners demonstrate their knowledge of Ukrainian through written and oral tests. As part of the oral component, students are asked to speak on various topics. “Why Ukraine Should Be Part of Europe” is one such topic that students have spoken on.

A complex system of grading to ensure impartiality in the judging is implemented says Slaboshpytskyy.  Judges do not see the names of the children whose written tests they are marking and exam questions are kept highly confidential so that no students have an unfair advantage.

All this takes a great deal of co-ordination.  It also takes a great deal of funding.

Ukraine’s Ministry of Education contributes and facilitates by supplying administrative assistance through the teachers’ participation in the program. A small handful of Ukrainian philanthropists, among them Yuriy Dzus, of X-Press Bank in Ukraine, have been supporting the contest financially.  Obolon, the company that makes the soft drink Zhyvchyk in Ukraine will be donating, says Slaboshpytskyy. But, most of the financial support currently comes from donors outside of Ukraine, with the Petro Jacyk Educational Foundation, with the support of many donors, being the main group providing funding.

“There are a lot of individual [Canadian and American] donors who have to be given credit,” says Zalucky. There are probably 50 to 100 donors who give every year, says Zalucky. Some have made significant gifts, up to the $100,000 mark. These donors were invited last fall to an evening in Toronto at which Slaboshpytskyy showed a video of last year’s contest.

It is hoped that as the profile of the contest grows and as the tradition of donating to charitable causes, which did not exist during Soviet times, becomes more entrenched in the mentality of Ukraine’s new wealthy class, more of the funding will come from philanthropists from Ukraine.

For now, the Petro Jacyk Educational Foundation board members will continue to fundraise in Canada. Given the millions of students the contest touches, the program produces a “big bang for the buck” and costs “only pennies per student,” says Zalucky, whose commitment to the program was   affirmed during his recent visit to Ukraine.

Says Zalucky: “Seeing these beautiful kids speaking Ukrainian with smiles on their faces,” makes it worth the effort.