Young people in Ukraine show better results in their command of Ukrainian each year. Still, the number of those who use it in everyday life is decreasing. This was reported by Deputy Minister of Education and Science Anastasia Konovalova.
According to her, there is a decline in the use of the Ukrainian language in everyday life among adolescents and young people. In particular, in 2022, 46% of children used the Ukrainian language constantly; in 2023, 55%; and in 2024, 49%.
“On the positive side, the level of children’s competence in using the Ukrainian language is constantly increasing. That is, they know it: in 2022, 61% of children and young people believed they were fluent in Ukrainian; in 2023, 72%; and in 2024, 75%. That is, today children know and speak the Ukrainian language better every year, but compared to last year, they use it less in everyday life,” Konovalova noted.
According to the Deputy Minister, 33% of teenagers explained this by habit, 20% by the fact that they communicate in Russian in the family, and in the school environment – in Ukrainian. 13% noted that, outside of school, they do not have an environment for communicating in Ukrainian; 12% said that they do not use the language due to poor knowledge of it. Also, 9% of children believe that their environment is biased towards the Ukrainian language.
