Simferopol – The headmaster of the only Ukrainian gymnasium in Simferopol, Natalya Rudenko, was forced to resign from her position today under pressure from ‘Aksenov’s self-defense’ and City Council officials.
The following information was passed to Crimea.Realities from sources within the gymnasium’s administration.
According to them, there was a protest held in front of the school in which dozens of people calling themselves students’ parents, as well as representatives of ‘self-defense,’ took part.
Following the protest, the vice-mayor of Simferopol, Ilya Glazkov, and the head of the Simferopol City Council’s Department of Education, Tatyana Suhina, paid a visit to the headmaster. They allegedly threatened to fire her under the ‘Article,’ and insisted that she file an application for dismissal as agreed by both parties.’
Previously, the Minister of Education in Crimea, Natalia Goncharova, declared during one of the talk shows aired on local TV channels that there is an ‘internal agreement’ in the department to turn one of the best Ukrainian-speaking schools of the peninsula, the Ukrainian Gymnasium of Simferopol, into a Russian-speaking one.
There are around 500 Russian-speaking schools on the territory of Crimea, as well as 5 Ukrainian-speaking schools, including the sole educational complex in Simferopol, the Ukrainian Gymnasium of Simferopol.
Natalia Rudenko has been in charge of the school since its opening 1997.
Source: Crimea.Realities
Translated by Dasha Darchuk, edited by Robin Rohrback
