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English Summary

Welcome

Welcome to the Shkola website – where you’ll find a wealth of information about Ukrainian community language education in Canada. In our English-language summary you’ll find:

  • A comprehensive listing of Ukrainian Community Schools in Canada
  • Information about the Ridna Shkola Networking Project
  • How tos on using Ukrainian on your computer

There’s also a wealth of information on our publicly-accessible Ukrainian-language pages:

Contact us

If you are a teacher or administrator of a Ukrainian school, please contact us at administrator@shkola.ca to gain full access to the site. You may also contact us at this address if you are a parent or a student seeking information about Ukrainian language education.

School listings

School listings for Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario are available by clicking "Find a school". Other provincial listings will be added in due course.

Preschool programs are usually called “Sadochok”. These programs are usually for children aged 3–5. They are often, although not always, located in Ukrainian institutions such as schools and churches, and are sometimes found in conjunction with programs for older pupils. Sadochok programs vary in the amount of Ukrainian language content, ranging from playschools which introduce children to a few basic words in Ukrainian to those that are run totally in Ukrainian for Ukrainian-speaking children. Sadochok programs may run weekdays or weekends.

Ukrainian school programs generally divide into two types, according to the age level which they serve.

Ridna Shkola programs are usually for elementary school pupils. They teach basic reading and writing, as well as speaking skills. In the older elementary grades, teachers may touch on some grammar and basic history or geography. These schools are organized and administered by churches, Ukrainian organizations, or independent parent or school committees. Classes usually take place evenings or Saturdays in Ukrainian institutions or rented public schools. Some programs are geared towards the second-language learner who knows little Ukrainian, while others are for children who speak Ukrainian at home and need to learn writing and reading skills.

Kursy Ukrainoznavstva are courses at the junior and senior high level and are almost always conducted entirely in Ukrainian. In addition to advanced reading and writing, these programs include such subjects as grammar, literature, geography, history and culture. Individual subjects are usually taught by specialists.

In some schools, elementary and senior programs are combined, with no distinction being made between the terms “ridna shkola” and “kursy ukrainoznavstva”.

Adult Courses at various levels are available across Canada. Most often, these courses are organized through continuing education departments of educational institutions. They are also sometimes offered through Ukrainian churches, organizations and by private individuals. This site lists only non-credit courses; in addition, Ukrainian language courses may be taken for credit through a variety of post-secondary institutions.

About the project

The Shkola website is part of a wider networking project undertaken at the initiative of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress National Headquarters in 2005. The mandate of this project is to facilitate communication between Canadian Ukrainian community schools in order to enable sharing of resources and information. The first phase of this project includes this website, as well as meetings with teachers in four cities: Toronto, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Calgary. Later phases will focus on further development of this site, in particular its resource database, as well as meetings with teachers in other centres.

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How to use Ukrainian on the computer

How do I set up my WEB BROWSER so that I may view web pages that have Cyrillic fonts?
Most web pages containing Ukrainian text will automatically work properly, especially newer versions
of Internet Explorer and Netscape. If you encounter problems with Ukrainian web pages, follow these steps: 

For IE 4 or better Web Browsers
1. Click "View" on the toolbar, then select "Fonts" (IE 5 Users, select "Encoding").
Alternatively, right click on any spot on the screen that is not a picture and click Encoding on the menu that pops up.

2. You will be given choices for various encoding schemes. For Ukrainian, available options are Cyrillic (DOS), Cyrillic (ISO), Cyrillic (Windows), Cyrillic (KOI8-U), and Unicode (UTF-8). There is also an Auto-Select option. 

If these options are not present, you must install them. You’ll need to run the Internet Explorer setup program and specifically choose the Cyrillic character support from the Internationalization options. If you don’t have the installation program, you can download it from http://www.microsoft.com for free. 

3. If Auto-Select is not checked, select it by clicking on it. Your browser will reload the page. If the page is still not readable, try the other Cyrillic options, starting with Unicode (UTF-8) and Cyrillic (Windows), as they are the most common. The Shkola website uses windows-1251 encoding.

4. Your browser will reload the page. If the page is not readable try Cyrillic Alphabet (KOI8-R), or Cyrillic Alphabet (ISO) or any of the other Cyrillic options.

If the Auto-Select feature or a specific language pack is not installed on your computer, Internet Explorer prompts you to download the files as needed. 

Adding languages does not guarantee that your computer has a font that can display Web pages in your preferred languages. To be prompted when fonts need to be added, go to the Tools menu in your browser window and select Internet Options, click the Advanced tab, and then select the Enable Install On Demand check box. 

You can add a Language Encoding button to your toolbar to make switching between languages quicker. 

For Netscape Navigator 4 or Better Web Browsers:
1. Click "View" on the toolbar, then "Character Set" (or "Character Coding" in Netscape 6).
2. You will be given numerous encoding choices. Your three Ukrainian options will be Cyrillic (KOI8-R), Cyrillic (ISO-8859-5), Cyrillic (Windows-1251).
3. The most common will be Cyrillic (Windows-1251). Select this option.
4. Your browser will reload the page. If the page is not readable try Cyrillic (KOI8-R), or Cyrillic (ISO-8859-5) or any of the other Cyrillic options.


How do I set up my COMPUTER so that I may use Ukrainian fonts?
Setting up your computer to use Ukrainian fonts involves 2 steps. First, you must install multilingual support on your computer. Then you will likely want to install a transliterated, phonetic keyboard, as the default Ukrainian keyboard is the one used in Ukraine and its layout is quite different from the QWERTY keyboard that most English speakers are familiar with.

Instructions for installing multilingual support and setting up keyboards are given below. Additional information on these topics can be found at http://www.cym.org and at http://www.brama.com.

Windows 95-98 - Installing Multilingual Support
1. Click the Start button. 
2. Click Settings, then Control Panel. 
3. From the Control Panel select Add/Remove Programs. 
4. Click on the Windows Setup tab. 
5. Scroll down and click Multilanguage Support, and then click Details. 
6. Make sure a check mark appears beside Cyrillic Language Support. 
7. Click OK at the bottom of the Add/Remove Programs window. 
8. Click OK again. 
9. You might be prompted to insert your Windows 95/98 CD-ROM. 
10. The changes will take effect after you re-boot your computer. 

Windows NT-2000-XP - Installing Multilingual Support
1. Click the Start button. 
2. Click Settings, then Control Panel. 
3. From the Control Panel double click Regional and Language Options. 
4. Click the Languages tab. 
5. Click Details (NT/XP) or Change (2000). 
6. Under Installed services, click Add. 
7. In the Input language list, scroll down and select "Ukrainian". 
8. Click OK to close the Add Input languages dialog box. 
9. Click Apply (NT/XP) or OK (2000). 
10. Under Installed services, click "UK Ukrainian". 
11. Under Preferences, click Language Bar. 
12. In the Language Bar Settings dialog box, select the Show the Language bar on the desktop check box. 
13. Click OK to close the Language Bar Settings dialog box. 
14. Click OK to close the Text Services and Input Languages dialog box. 
15. Click OK to close the Regional and Language Options dialog box. 
16. Close the Control Panel. 
A system reboot may be required.

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