OREANDA-NEWS. August 20, the Ukrainian House hosted a ceremony of rewarding winners of an international competition "Best teacher of the Ukrainian language abroad." Honors and awards were handed over to 14 winners by Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine Lilia Hrynevych.

In the category "Elementary School Teacher" the I place was awarded to Janina Vygovska (Edmonton, Canada), II place – Nina Hagen (Oslo, Norway) and III place – Narcissa Grecheniuk (Vyshavska Valley, Romania).

In the nomination "Secondary School Teacher" the I place was awarded to Iraida Korniy (Bendery, Moldova), II place – Yekaterina Grudko (Bendery, Moldova), the III place – Natalia Lanetska (R?bni?a, Moldova).

"To cherish the language in a foreign environment is rather difficult. Therefore, we extremely appreciate the efforts of those teachers and those people who help teachers in promoting the language, in the teaching of the Ukrainians living abroad. This work is a key direction as the national identity of our children abroad focuses around it", appealed Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine Lilia Hrynevych to the participants and the winners.

Co-organizers of the competition from the Ukrainian World Coordinating Council noted that such contests should be part of a more systematic program of development and support of Ukrainian education abroad.

In the contest there took part 107 teachers. At the second (final stage) there were shortlisted 14 teachers from 4 countries – Norway, Canada, Romania and Moldova. 5 teachers in the final competed for the title of best teacher in the category "Elementary School Teacher" and 9 teachers in the nomination "Secondary School Teacher".

The main evaluation criteria for the contestants were: methodological literacy, creativity, ethnology aspect, the performance of teacher, use of information and communication technologies.