THE PROCESS IS PROHIBITED: THE PROSECUTION PROHIBITES TEACHING THE TATAR LANGUAGE WITHOUT PARENTAL CONSENT Natalia VASILIEVA  The prosecutor's office warns school directors in Tatarstan and requires the elimination of existing violations.
A copy of the submission of the acting prosecutor's office of the Vakhitovsky district A. Abutalipov addressed to the director of school No. 51 stirred up social networks last night. According to Vechernyaya Kazan sources, school principals across Tatarstan received similar views this week as a result of mass prosecutorial inspections of schools by parents who were dissatisfied with compulsory Tatar lessons at the expense of Russian lessons. The content of the 5-page document echoes the July statement Russian President Vladimir Putin that it is unacceptable to force citizens to learn a non-native language for them and to reduce the hours of teaching Russian. Recall that the Minister of Education of the Republic of Tatarstan Engel Fattakhov said that the words of the Russian president are not about Tatarstan. Until recently, the prosecutor's office of Tatarstan adhered to the same position, in contrast to the prosecutor's office of Bashkortostan, where they immediately said that it was impossible to force children to learn the Bashkir language without the consent of their parents. And now the position of our prosecutor's office has changed dramatically. The prosecutor’s submission addressed to the director of the 51st school in Kazan states that “the teaching of native languages, including the Tatar language, is not allowed without the consent of the parents (legal representatives) of students,” however, as the prosecutor’s office found out, Tatar is taught to everyone in the school without fail. At the same time, “it follows from the explanation of the director of the secondary school that Tatar is a state language and is mandatory for learning. Separate written consent to the study of subjects of the curriculum was not requested from parents. At the request of the prosecutor's office, the school principal must eliminate the violations and bring the perpetrators to disciplinary responsibility. The perpetrators of violating the requirements of federal law, as established by the prosecutor's office, are ... head teachers for academic work and national issues that were inappropriately related to the duties entrusted to them.
It is noteworthy that the order of the Vakhitov prosecutor's office came to light on October 2, exactly on the day when the same prosecutor's office demanded that school principals urgently provide curricula, lesson schedules and explanatory notes on the “language issue”. “According to my information, the text of this submission was drawn up immediately after the arrival in Kazan on September 27 of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Yuri Chaika, and this template document was sent to all district prosecutor’s offices,” Ekaterina Belyaeva, an activist from the Russian Language in Schools of National Republics community, told Vechernaya Kazan. In turn, the "Committee of Russian-speaking parents of Tataria", referring to their sources in the prosecutor's office, reported that directors of many schools in Tatarstan received similar orders to eliminate violations with the teaching of Tatar and Russian languages. According to parents, the arrival of representatives of the Prosecutor General's Office in our republic, who, on Putin's instructions, will check the voluntary nature of learning languages in schools, is expected in a week.
The Ministry of Education and Science of Russia will check the observance of the rights of citizens to voluntary study state languages republics and mother tongue. Rosobrnadzor and the Prosecutor General's Office joined the check. What caused such close attention and is it true that the Russian language is being squeezed out of the school curriculum in some regions?
Why did it happen? Schools in the regions have the right to add native languages to the schedule. True, without reducing the mandatory part of the curriculum, which takes 80 percent of the time. Relatively speaking, the school is supposed to spend 600 hours a year in mathematics, Russian, physics, chemistry - this is the law, and the school can spend another 120 hours on local history, native language, logic, law or by adding lessons of the same Russian or English. This variable part is necessarily discussed with parents, and all curricula are approved by the governing board of the school. Some schools not only used almost the entire reserve of hours exclusively in their native language and literature without any advice from parents, but also "climbed" into the main part of the plan, cutting back hours on compulsory subjects.
Mom was not asked
As explained in the Ministry of Education of Bashkortostan, academic subject"Bashkir language" is studied by schoolchildren on a voluntary basis at the choice of parents. No more than two hours per week with grading.
It is impossible to completely abandon the Bashkir language, ”Rushana Ibraeva, a parent of the Ufa school N 5, reports on the Web.
We left two lessons of Bashkir in the 5th grade at gymnasium N 91. Go to understand - again there will be a conflict, - writes Gulshat Davletova.
But Ufa Natalya Panchishina believes that everything depends on the principles of the parents: " Bashkir language as a state one is included in the variable part of the curriculum. And parents choose either it or another subject. Some schools have done just that. This is a matter of parental integrity. But only".
We have national schools where the number of hours of Russian is less, and Bashkir is more. But these schoolchildren take the USE in Russian for common grounds, - says Ilyana Aminova, an accredited USE expert.
Infographics: "RG" / Mikhail Shipov / Leonid Kuleshov / Irina Ivoilova
Twos are canceled
In Chuvashia, as in Bashkortostan, both Russian and Chuvash are official languages. As RG was informed in the republican Ministry of Education, in all schools the Chuvash language and literature are studied at the expense of hours allocated for the subject areas "native language and native literature." In schools with the Russian language of instruction, 5-9 hours a week are determined for the study of the Russian language and literature, and 2-3 hours for the Chuvash language.
In schools with a native language of instruction, Russian is taught 5-9 hours a week, and Chuvash up to 4-5 hours. The Chuvash language is taught in schools as a compulsory language. At the same time, local authorities nod at foreign languages, they say, they are also forcibly forced to teach. And nothing!
It is clear that for some students learning Chuvash can be a problem. Therefore, the local Ministry of Education allowed not to put marks on this subject. If the parents so wish. In addition, schools are required to develop individual learning programs. Including multilevel.
In the schools of Chuvashia, hours dedicated to the Russian language and literature have been preserved in full. Moreover, in a number of schools, extra hours are traditionally given in Russian, - said Yury Isaev, Minister of Education of Chuvashia.
Where schoolchildren do not have to learn the state language of the republics, there are more hours for Russian and vice versa
There is no oppression of the Russian language in the national republic, officials say. On the contrary, from year to year the proportion of graduates of schools in Chuvashia who did not pass the Unified State Examination in the Russian language is lower than the average for Russia. For example, in 2016, the share of Chuvash schoolchildren who did not pass the Russian language exam was 0.28 percent, while in Russia it was 1.0 percent. In 2017 - 0.15 percent and 0.54, respectively.
Equalized in hours
For more than twenty years in Tatarstan, whether you want it or not, whether you are a Tatar or not, learn Tatar. The Constitution of the Republic allows schools to do this. And just like in other regions, the native language is introduced at the expense of the variable part of the program, but the opinions of moms and dads are not asked. Parents have only two "types" of Tatar to choose from. It is taught either as a native language or as a foreign language. Moreover, the basics of Tatar are also taught in kindergartens.
An equal amount of time is allocated for the study of both languages, the Minister of Education and Science of the Republic of Tatarstan Engel Fattakhov emphasized more than once.
Everything is coordinated with the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia. Parents are not opposed to their children being fluent in Russian and Tatar, and also in English, the minister is sure.
In addition, about 150 million rubles are annually allocated from the republican budget for additional study of Russian (each school, if desired, can add one more lesson to the schedule).
What if the child moved from another region? He is taught on an individual basis. So even in the 9th grade you can have a Tatar textbook for the first.
The problem is that they teach not colloquial, but academic Tatar, and it is very difficult, - says a teacher of Russian language and literature in one of the Kazan schools. - Even Tatar parents do not cope with homework, not like Russians. Most outraged are those whose children study in primary and secondary grades. Children do not learn speech lexicon small. And high school students simply do not go to these lessons. True, when a mandatory Tatar exam was introduced for 9th graders, they began to attend classes better.
Difficulties are also associated with the fact that they are not synchronized learning programs. For example, in the Tatar lessons they started to study adverbs, but they have not yet been taught in Russian ... There are other problems.
And just like in Chuvashia, local authorities nod at USE results In Russian: GPA grows in Tatarstan. Therefore, Tatar does not interfere with the development of Russian. To which some parents object that high scores in Russian, the merit is not of the school, but of the tutors.
As Gulnara Gabdrakhmanova, department head of the Institute of History named after Marjani of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan, told RG, the attitude to teaching the Tatar language has been measured for many years.
Most of the respondents say that it is necessary to keep Tatar as a compulsory subject, she said. - A third says that it is necessary to change the teaching system - either make it optional, or reduce hours. The remaining 20 percent cannot express their attitude. Studies show that the situation has changed dramatically over the past 20 years. IN Soviet time people were embarrassed to speak Tatar. It turned out that now even Russian-speakers are inserting Tatar words into their speech. Today it is fashionable.
While the number was being made
The Ministry of Education and Science of Tatarstan reported that "a decision was made to bring the volume of studying the Russian language from January 1, 2018 to the volume recommended by the Ministry of Education and Science Russian Federation".
Competently
Olga Artemenko, Head of the Center for Ethnocultural Strategy of Education of the Federal Institute for the Development of Education:
If we look at the standard for example primary education, it turns out that there is a fork in the norm of teaching hours allocated for the study of subjects. Quantity training sessions for 4 academic years cannot be less than 2904 hours and more than 3210 hours and for programs the school may have several curricula. The difference in 4 years is 306 hours, and in a year 76.5 hours. Where schoolchildren do not have to learn the state language of the republics, there are more hours for Russian and vice versa. Parents from Tatarstan ask the question: why do children living in Moscow have large quantity hours to study the Russian language than our children, and when entering universities, do everyone have the same rights? The second aspect of this problem boils down to the question of why the same number of hours are allocated for Russian as for Tatar, and sometimes even an hour more. Why did the Russian language become the state language of the republic, and not the Russian Federation? Why is the Tatar language obligatory to study? Compulsory study of the state language of the republic has been introduced not only in Tatarstan, but also in Bashkortostan, Komi, Chuvashia and a number of other republics. In my opinion, this is an attempt by the authorities to improve the situation with native languages.
The situation with mother tongues last decade really getting worse. To date, studies in primary school only available in 12 languages. Even in Dagestan, out of 14 languages, only schools teaching in Avar remained.
Unfortunately, no one has prescribed the content of education for schools with instruction in the languages of the peoples of Russia, no special methods have been developed aimed at developing intelligence, logical thinking in a bilingual environment. But the development of these schools over the past 25 years has been entirely in the hands of the regions.
About a thousand statements with the refusal to attend Tatar language lessons have already been written in Tatarstan by parents to school directors, thereby bringing the latter to panic and hysteria. At the suggestion of officials from the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Tatarstan, directors are forced to prove to rebellious mothers and fathers that they misunderstood the words of the President of Russia and that all schoolchildren must learn Tatar without fail. Now the parents are hoping for the Prosecutor General's Office and Rosobrnadzor, which, as they found out, will begin an inspection in Tatarstan on behalf of Putin in October.
WRITE IN ENTIRE CLASSES
The words of Vladimir Putin that it is unacceptable to force a person to learn a non-native language, as well as to reduce the time of teaching the Russian language, said on July 20 at an off-site meeting of the Council under the President of the Russian Federation for Interethnic Relations in Yoshkar-Ola, sparked a spark from which the flame of parenthood ignited in Tatarstan. resistance to the compulsory study of the Tatar language in equal volumes with Russian. And when, on the eve of the academic year, the head of state instructed the Prosecutor General's Office and Rosobrnadzor to check, by November 30, the observance in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation of the rights of citizens to voluntarily study languages from among the languages of the peoples of Russia and the state languages of the republics, inspired Tatarstan parents began to take action.
To begin with, they began to write to school principals applications-denials from the compulsory study of the Tatar language and the transition to the curriculum for schools with Russian (native) language of instruction ( in Tatarstan, as parents have long found out, all schools work according to curricula with Russian (non-native) or Tatar as the language of instruction. - "VC"). Refusals are written all over the republic. For example, in Yelabuga school No. 8, the first two grades collectively abandoned Tatar at once ...
THE MIRACLE DID NOT HAPPEN
And the parents were inspired by the example of the mother of a fourth-grader of the Naberezhnye Chelny school No. 9 - journalist Alsu Gazizova, who was one of the first to write a statement with a refusal on September 4 and - lo and behold! - On September 8, I received an oral positive response from the class teacher: they say, if you don’t want to, don’t teach, let the child draw or read a book at the lesson of his native language. True, a day later, when the news of “the appearance of the first child in Tatarstan who does not need to learn Tatar” spread through social networks at the speed of light and objectionable parents reached out to schools, the teacher changed her mind. And last Monday, September 11, the mother - the heroine of social networks, was invited to a conversation by the director of the school.
She told me that I misunderstood everything, referred to and stressed that Tatar is compulsory. In a word, I received an oral refusal. I have not received a written response yet. But on the same day I wrote complaints to the city prosecutor's office and Rosobrnadzor, - Alsu Gazizova told Vechernaya Kazan.
The local mayor's office had to respond to the "Gazizova effect" that emerged in Naberezhnye Chelny, which recalled that, according to the Constitution of the Republic of Tatarstan, two state languages - Russian and Tatar - are studied in equal volumes. “Therefore, neither the school nor the municipality can cancel the study of state languages. If a student does not attend classes in the Tatar language, then at the end of the school year, due to the failure to complete the program, he will not be certified, ”the city authorities threatened the parents.
In general, the administrations of many schools are now trying out of harm's way to avoid meetings with parents concerned about the "language" issue.
In one of the schools, the secretary, having learned about the purpose of the visit of the parent, threw a tantrum, in another the director simply ran out of his office. There is a known case when classroom teacher left with parent meeting when the issue of obligatory Tatar was raised. I took my things and left, - the head of the public organization"Committee for the protection of the rights of Russian-speaking parents and students of the Republic of Tatarstan" Edward Nosov.
In some schools, the administration, avoiding conflicts with parents, went to the trick, calling the lessons of the Tatar language in the schedule lessons of the native language, and Tatar literature - just literature.
RUSSIAN - MEAN NON-NATIVE
In turn, education officials organized a counter movement: parents are asked to sign an agreement for children to study the Tatar language. Another compromise option is to sign up for an elective course in the native language introduced a few years ago at the initiative of Rustam Minnikhanov, where you can choose to study Tatar or Russian, say, on Saturday, the last lesson.
Why put extra pressure on kids? - the mother of a Kazan first-grader, a member of the Committee of Russian-speaking parents of Tatarstan, Raya Demidova, is perplexed. - Just recently, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Tatarstan reported that the Prime Minister of the Republic, Alexei Pesoshin, decided to increase the volume of studying the Russian language from January 1, 2018 to the volumes recommended federal standards. My daughter now has the maximum allowable load according to SanPiN - 26 hours a week. No more. Does this mean that some items will have to be reduced? But what if Tatar is our sacred cow?
On September 11, opponents of the compulsory Tatar language in schools sent a "package" to the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Yuri Chaika.
It contains documents proving that in Tatarstan schoolchildren for whom the Tatar language is not native are forced to study it as a native language, and Russian as a non-native one, - Edward Nosov said.
Among the documents sent to Chaika are the results of the monitoring of school websites by activist mothers.
We studied 100% of the websites of schools in Tatarstan and identified several violations, - said Raya Demidova. - Firstly, not all sites present curricula not only for the new academic year, but also for past years, which means that parents are deprived of the opportunity to get to know what and to what extent their children are studying. Secondly, the analysis of available open access curricula once again showed that in schools where Russian is officially declared as the language of instruction, in fact, they work according to programs for general education organizations with non-native Russian. Finally, judging by the curricula, in all schools in Tatarstan, “native language” means Tatar, sometimes Chuvash and others. national languages, but never - Russian. Copies of curricula on 90 pages we have attached to a letter to the Prosecutor General's Office.
