Ukrainian Language Gains Ground in European Education: Conference in Kraków
On June 12–13, 2026, Kraków is hosting the 3rd International Scientific and Practical Conference “Ukrainian as a Foreign Language in Poland” — one of the largest international academic forums dedicated to teaching, researching, and promoting the Ukrainian language outside Ukraine.
Organizers and Participants
The event brought together scholars, teachers, educators, diplomats, and government representatives from Poland, Ukraine, and other European countries. The conference was organized by the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences, the Department of Polish-Ukrainian Studies at the Jagiellonian University, and Secondary School No. XV named after Major Piotr Wysocki in Wrocław.
Today, the Ukrainian language is increasingly establishing itself in the European educational space as a language of instruction, research, certification, and intercultural communication. The conference is dedicated to these very processes — from developing teaching standards to integrating Ukrainian into the educational systems of European countries.
Key Topics
Participants are paying particular attention to the results of the first-ever matura exam in Ukrainian language held in Poland. The event also brings together representatives of Polish schools that will begin teaching Ukrainian as a second foreign language starting in September 2026 — a significant step toward the institutionalization of Ukrainian in the Polish education system.
Among the key topics of the conference are international certification of the Ukrainian language, the development of teaching standards for school-age children, experiences of teaching Ukrainian in Austria, Italy, France, and other European countries, as well as questions of linguistic identity, multilingualism among Ukrainian children abroad, and the role of language in decolonization processes.
Pylyp Orlyk Foundation’s Participation
The Pylyp Orlyk Foundation served as a partner of the conference and supported the development of a Ukrainian language curriculum as a second foreign language for Polish schools.
During the opening ceremony, Yaryna Yasynevych, Program Director of the Pylyp Orlyk Foundation, highlighted the important changes currently taking place around the Ukrainian language in the world.
“At a time when Russia is trying to destroy Ukrainian culture with missiles, it is especially important that Ukrainian language is heard in university lecture halls across Europe. If just a few years ago we were talking mainly about preserving it in the diaspora, today we are talking about learning Ukrainian as a foreign language in European schools and universities.”
Yaryna Yasynevych also emphasized the importance of language education for Ukrainian children abroad, drawing on the experience of implementing the “Koreni ta Kryla” (Roots and Wings) program in the Czech Republic and Denmark, as we previously reported. She thanked Ukrainian and Polish partners for their support of Ukrainian language education, as well as educators whose daily work contributes to preserving Ukrainian identity.
Organizers’ Address
As Dr. Pavlo Levchuk, Chair of the Conference Organizing Committee, notes, the past year has been a turning point for the development of Ukrainian language education in Poland:
“After the publication of curricula for teaching Ukrainian as a second foreign language and the holding of the first matura exam, we are seeing a notable increase in interest in Ukrainian among parents, students, school principals, and educational communities. Our task today is not only to support this positive trend, but to further establish Ukrainian as a modern, promising, and fully-fledged foreign language in the Polish education system.”
For the third time, the conference has served as a platform for international dialogue on the development of Ukrainian language education abroad, and this year it has brought together more than 100 participants from Poland, Ukraine, Austria, France, Italy, and Canada.
