The State Council of the Republic of Tatarstan unanimously adopted a draft resolution on teaching the Tatar language in schools of the republic. As the Chairman of the State Council noted at a meeting of the Parliament of the Republic of Tajikistan Farid Mukhametshin, the government of the republic, together with the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, did a lot of work - “a common understanding was found with colleagues from the federal ministry.”
“The main result of the consultations was that the Tatar language as the state language of the Republic of Tatarstan will be studied as part of the curriculum in schools. On November 28, in response to an appeal from the President of the Republic Minnikhanov Rustam Nurgalievich, a letter was received from the Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation Olga Yuryevna Vasilyeva, who sent sample curricula to us, providing for the study state languages republics of the Russian Federation, where the state language of the republics of the Russian Federation is legally established.
The Ministry of Education and Science has a lot of work to do to ensure that schools adopt curricula that include the state Tatar language in them for two hours. It is necessary to implement a set of measures, including making changes to work programs in the Tatar language, updating educational literature, methodological documents, advanced training and retraining of personnel.
Further delay and postponement of this issue, as well as discussions in society, create tension in relationships, as I have already said, both in the teaching environment, and in the parental environment, in the family, even among children.
Therefore, dear colleagues, at the proposal of the members of the Presidium of the State Council, I make a proposal: do not open the debate, proceed to consideration of the draft resolution on this issue, and protocol to the State Council Committee on Education, Culture, Science and national issues Deputy Valeev will need to take control of all this work, and it is possible that from time to time we will return to consider the progress of this work at committee meetings.
Let me voice the draft resolution, just two points: “Having heard the information from the Chairman of the State Council of the Republic of Tatarstan Mukhametshin, the prosecutor of the Republic of Tatarstan Nafikov on the teaching and learning of the state languages of the Republic of Tatarstan, the native languages of the peoples living in the Republic of Tatarstan, the State Council decides: to take into account the information of Mukhametshin and Nafikov and propose to the Ministry of Education and science of the Republic of Tatarstan, Engel Navapovich Fattakhov to take measures to organize the educational process in state and municipal educational institutions RT in accordance with the model curricula presented by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation on November 28, 2017.” This short decision [was made] after we postponed this issue for two sessions,” Mukhametshin said.
The draft resolution was adopted unanimously - 71 deputies voted in favor.
“Thank you very much, I think this resolution was adopted and supported by you with great understanding. The same understanding of both the importance and complexity of this issue should now be put into action in the preparation of new documents, which will be jointly prepared by the Ministry of Education and the government of the republic,” added the Chairman of the State Council.
Video: press service of the State Council of the Republic of Tatarstan
Putin's words about the inadmissibility of forced learning of non-native languages were received ambiguously in Tatarstan. Yes, the languages of the peoples of Russia, the president noted, are also an integral part of the unique culture of the peoples of the country. But “to study these languages is a right guaranteed by the Constitution, a voluntary right”...
It is precisely in the word “voluntary” that the whole conflict lies, which is being hotly discussed in Tatarstan these days. The website inkazan.ru writes about the details.
Tatars forget their native language
Meanwhile, this complex problem can have very unpredictable consequences. As you know, the Tatars are the second largest people in Russia. According to the 2010 census, 5.31 million Russian citizens considered themselves to be this people, and 4.28 million people spoke the Tatar language (among the Tatars - 3.64 million, that is, 68%)
Experts note that despite the fact that the Tatar language in the republic is on par with the Russian state language, there are fewer Tatars who know their native language. And this is not surprising - both assimilation and mixed marriages play a role. And of course, the weakening position of the language is associated with the low quality of school teaching and the closure of national schools.
According to the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Tatarstan, in 2016-2017, there were 724 schools (including branches) with the Tatar language of instruction in the republic. There are 173.96 thousand children of Tatar nationality studying in schools (this is 46% of the total). Of these, 60.91 thousand Tatar children study in Tatar schools. Total Tatar children studying in their native language - 75.61 thousand people (43.46%). That is less than half!
The results of a massive study conducted in Tatarstan in 2014 do not add optimism to defenders of the native language. According to him, the majority of Tatars would like their children to speak Russian (96%) rather than Tatar (95%). English came in third place - 83%.
And a study conducted among young people in 2015 showed that most of them want to speak English (83%). In second place is the Russian language (62%), while only 32 to 38% of respondents would like to know Tatar. Thus, a kind of scale of prestige has been built: “Western - Russian - Tatar”, where the latter is perceived as archaic and operates in the ideas of modern youth, experts conclude. The lack of incentive to study the Tatar language is largely due to the fact that, according to respondents, this language does not help them find a prestigious job.
This situation could not help but worry the All-Tatar Public Center (VTOC), which sent deputies and political organizations an appeal to save the Tatar language. The appeal states that, despite the equality of both state languages enshrined in the Constitution of Tatarstan 25 years ago, in fact only Russian can be considered the state language in the republic. Over all these years, the State Council of Tatarstan “has never been able to organize at least one meeting in the Tatar language, and simultaneous translation has been canceled in the Kazan City Duma.” In the republic, 699 Tatar schools have been closed, as well as Tatar faculties in two universities.
“In Tatarstan there should be one state language - Tatar,” conclude members of the VTOC. - Radical? Maybe there are other suggestions on how to preserve the Tatar language?
There is already a law on bilingualism in Tatarstan, it is reflected in the Constitution, and another law is not needed, State Council deputy Hafiz Mirgalimov comments on this statement. Russian and Tatar should remain the official languages.
“In fact, we have two official languages. If someone doesn’t speak Tatar, then you need to address this question to him - why doesn’t he speak?” - says Rafael Khakimov, vice-president of the Academy of Sciences of Tatarstan.
In reality, however, everything is not so simple. For example, the Minister of Education and Science of Tatarstan Engel Fattakhov said that in schools there is an acute shortage of not only teachers who know the Tatar language, and this leads to a deterioration in the quality of national education.
But the schoolchildren themselves, apparently, are not too eager to learn the Tatar language. In 2015, the website of the human rights center “ROD” published an article signed by 11th-grader Diana Suleymanova, who wrote that schoolchildren call Tatar their least favorite subject at school. The girl wrote that children are divided into groups - elementary or advanced - based on their surname, without taking into account whether families with Tatar surnames speak the national language.
They tried to fight for the Tatar language administratively: on July 11, 2017 (even before Putin’s speech), the State Council of the Republic of Tatarstan adopted a bill according to which municipalities received the right to fine the management of institutions and other institutions for the lack of information in the Tatar language.
It is not difficult to judge the prospects of such measures in Russia: they have always been and will remain a source of various abuses, but the solution to the problem itself is unlikely to bring any closer.
It is curious that at first Tatarstan stated that the words of the head of state about the language had nothing to do with their region. Whereas in neighboring Bashkiria they rushed to take the stand and the head of the republic, Rustem Khamitov, promised to abolish compulsory lessons of the national language in schools, and then the prosecutor’s office of the republic issued a statement banning the non-voluntary study of the Bashkir language in local schools.
Do Putin's words contradict the constitution of Tatarstan?
As for Tatarstan, the struggle for the native language continues. This can be judged at least by how the president’s words are interpreted.
For example, journalist Maxim Shevchenko, who was present at the meeting where the president said his words, hastened to explain Putin’s position:
“This is a signal to everyone that learning Russian will be mandatory, and you organize language learning for those who want it. I believe that it is useful for people to learn languages, especially ones like Tatar. It immediately opens up the world in many countries. If you know Tatar, for example, you feel free in Turkey, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, you can communicate freely with the Kyrgyz... Let's agree with the president that the state language should be mandatory. And with other languages, let’s be able to sell them, as they say in the modern world.”
But according to the leader of the Russian national movement in Tatarstan, Mikhail Shcheglov, the Russian President addressed his words specifically to the authorities of Tatarstan. In his opinion, the region’s leadership should take action and correct the current situation without waiting for personnel decisions from the federal center.
“For 10 years I have almost physically felt the pain of parents who do not know how to get rid of this hated subject “Tatar language”: they pretend that they are studying, but aggression comes from above - from the directors’ corps, the bureaucratic educational corps.”
The public figure called a lie the statement of the regional authorities that a consensus had been reached on the issue of studying the Tatar language in the republic. The national language, Shcheglov is sure, has been and is being implanted:
“National languages must be preserved among their natural speakers, and not artificial, surrogate ones. Let the Tatars learn their language, preserve it and be responsible for it to their descendants, but do not enforce it through administrative pressure.”
Minister of Education and Science of the Republic of Tatarstan Engel Fattakhov commented on the statement of Russian President Vladimir Putin as follows:
« We have a Constitution, a law on languages - we have 2 state languages: Russian and Tatar, a law on education. Both official languages are studied to the same extent. We operate according to federal standards. We have no violations here. All our actions are coordinated with the Ministry of Education. We are performers. We comply with the law, we have an education program, and based on this, we will act.”
Fattakhov said that in the region this year there were no 11th grade graduates who were unable to overcome minimum threshold, passing the Unified State Exam in Russian. According to him, on the instructions of the head of the region, Rustam Minnikhanov, about 150 million rubles are allocated annually from the budget to improve the quality of teaching the Russian language. According to preliminary data, in comparison with the regions of the Russian Federation, the results of graduates in Russian are higher than in most regions, he said. This year, 51 graduates passed the Unified State Exam in Russian with 100 points. However, a year earlier there were more such results - 85.
The head of the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Tatarstan recalled that teaching the Tatar language is approached differently in the region.
“In our republic, we have adopted the concept of teaching the Tatar language specifically for Russian-speaking children, for Tatar children who do not speak it perfectly, and purely Tatar children. Our position is this: we have 2 official languages. And any parent does not mind if his child is fluent in Russian, Tatar and more English language. We think that everything depends on us and we will continue to work."
The Prosecutor General's Office took up the case
The message that Putin ordered General Prosecutor's Office The Russian Federation, together with Rosobrnadzor, will check how citizens’ rights to voluntarily study their native language and state languages of the republics are respected in their constituent entities.
The regional leadership has been instructed to organize Russian language training at the level approved by the Russian Ministry of Education and to improve the quality of teaching. Heads of regions must ensure that in general education schools, children study the national and state languages of the republic exclusively on a voluntary basis at the choice of parents.
Not everyone was happy with this news. For example, political scientist Abbas Gallyamov believes that inspections by Rosobrnadzor and the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation in the republic may cancel mandatory Tatar language lessons. “Of course, Tatarstan will have to give in. And it will be another blow according to the positions of the leadership of the republic. Moscow to Once again will demonstrate that she does not intend to take his opinion into account.”
The results don't look too optimistic sociological research, according to which in Kazan 23-27% of Tatars admit that their children might not study their native language as part of school curriculum. Putin’s statement about the voluntary study of non-native languages was supported by 68% of Tatars and 80% of Russians.
And already on September 7, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Tatarstan made an official statement regarding calls to abolish the compulsory study of the Tatar language in schools of the Republic of Tatarstan.
The ministry noted that, based on Article 68 of the Constitution Russian Federation, the republics that are part of Russia can independently establish national languages for their region. It is recalled that the national languages in Tatarstan are Russian and Tatar, which is why their study in schools is mandatory.
The ministry noted that in this moment The department is engaged in improving methods of teaching technologies for the Tatar language and language policy in Tatarstan. It is also reported that from January 1, 2018, the volume of studying the Russian language will be increased to the volume recommended by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation.
As is usual in such cases, the difference in the interpretation of the words of the head of state led to various incidents. For example, a resident of Naberezhnye Chelny announced on social networks that her son was exempt from Tatar language lessons at school. However, then the woman was informed that she had misunderstood the situation: “The director told me that “I misunderstood them,” referred to the explanation of the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Tatarstan and said that Tatar is compulsory. The director verbally denied me the right, given to me by the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation and the President of the Russian Federation, to choose whether or not to teach my child a non-native language. However, she did not want to issue a refusal in writing. Referring to the fact that she has a period of 30 days. Having received a refusal even verbally, I had the opportunity to write complaints to the Prosecutor’s Office of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, which I will do today.”
As Inkazan found out, Russian-speaking parents are uniting on social networks to achieve the abolition of studying the Tatar language for their children. In each of them, community administrators emphasize that they are not against the Tatar language as such. They point to its voluntary study and demand that the Tatar language not be imposed on the Russian-speaking population.
The debate did not reveal a winner
It would not be an exaggeration to say that every day the situation around the Tatar language in Tatarstan is heating up. So, on September 14, an open debate was held in Kazan on the topic “Tatar language in the Russian education system,” in which parents of schoolchildren and representatives of public organizations took part. According to the moderator of the conversation, Albert Muratov, the reason for the meeting was the growing scandal on social networks, which resulted in mutual attacks by the Russian and Tatar-speaking population of the republic on the issue of studying the national language as part of the school curriculum.
Member of the All-Tatar Public Center (VTOC) Marat Lutfullin said that he did not understand the meaning of the debate. According to him, educational institutions in the region independently develop educational programs, taking into account federal and regional characteristics and legislation. He proposed generally increasing the number of hours in both Russian and Tatar languages, as well as introducing mandatory final certification based on the results of studying the national language. His statements caused a negative reaction from those gathered, who began to shout and interrupt the speaker.
The chairman of the committee of Russian-speaking citizens of the Republic of Tatarstan, Eduard Nosov, spoke at the meeting and read out an explanation from the Tatarstan prosecutor’s office on the issue of studying national languages. According to him, the department stated that the republic has realized the right to study one’s native language as the state language. However, the prosecutor's office noted that there is a "legal conflict regarding the area of study subject area"native language". There is no distinction in federal legislation between the state language and the native language.”
A member of the anti-corruption committee at the Ministry of Education of Tatarstan, Ekaterina Matveeva, reported that during the day of work hotline The ministry received more than 40 complaints about the forced study of Tatar in schools, some of which came from groups of students’ parents. In addition, Matveeva announced cases of pressure on parents working in the public sector. For speaking out against children learning the national language, they were threatened with dismissal, she said.
And the chairman of the VTOC Farit Zakiev said, in turn, that in Russia over the past few years the number of Tatars speaking their native language has decreased by more than 1 million people. “The Russians are absolutely not to blame for this, the policy that is being pursued is to blame. We must ensure that Russian parents demand that their children be taught Tatar.”
Zakiev proposed introducing a salary increase of 25% for those who speak the Tatar language, as well as conducting bilingual interviews when applying for jobs in government agencies. Zakiev’s statements caused a negative reaction from the audience - many rose from their seats and began to interrupt the speaker.
“Why are there any protests, complaints to Moscow? This would not be desirable, because Tatarstan is a separate state and, naturally, the Tatar language is taught to citizens,” Zakiev said, asking those present to “base their statements on the Constitution of the Russian Federation.”
“This is where we come from! We can’t go back, they kick us out, they say that “we have our own,” they shouted from the hall.
It is not difficult to guess how this collision will end: the Tatar language in Tatarstan is doomed to be an optional study. But this is unlikely to contribute to civil peace in the republic.
Copy iframe
The discussion of the second edition of amendments to the law “On Education” begins in the State Duma of Russia. The abolition of compulsory study of the languages of the national republics within Russia has been worrying their residents for a year now. The parents were divided into two camps.
In Kazan there are almost equal numbers of Tatars and Russians – 47 and 48 percent, and there are many mixed families. There are two official languages in Tatarstan – Russian and Tatar. Bilingualism is guaranteed by the Constitution of the Republic. For the last twenty years, all students have studied Tatar 6 lessons a week. Last year, compulsory study of the Tatar language in schools was declared illegal. The reason was the statement Russian President Vladimir Putin, about the inadmissibility of forced learning of a non-native language.
“Within the framework of the legislation of the Council of Europe, within the framework of educational standards recommended by the Council of Europe, there is a concept of competence called “mother tongue”. That is, this is a core competency. Our native language is not registered within the Federal State Educational Standard, therefore there is no final certification in the native language. There is only a final certification in the state Russian language,” says Airat Fazrakhmanov, historian, deputy chairman World Forum of Tatar Youth.
Even in the second edition of the document, only one of the four curriculum options provides for compulsory teaching of the native language.
The bill assumes that parents will make the choice. If the majority of parents in a class decide to refuse to study Tatar, the children of the rest will have to submit to someone else’s choice. Ekaterina, the mother of an eighth-grader, believes that studying the Tatar language is a waste of time for her son.
“My eldest son is in school, he graduated from the eighth grade this year. We have been studying the Tatar language for eight years, unfortunately to no avail. Almost every day from first to eighth grade,” says the mother of an eighth-grader.
Changes in language policy have already affected teachers of national languages. In the middle school year The prosecutor's office of Tatarstan demanded the dismissal of Tatar language teachers. Most school directors did this. And only the school principal, the Sun Pavel Shmakov refused and filed a lawsuit against the prosecutor's office.
"Sun is an abbreviation for: Specialized scientific olympiad center. We are a school where children are taught from fifth to 11th grade. The prosecutor's office of our country in general and the prosecutor's office of Tatarstan in particular, in my opinion, went too far. When they came to us with inspections, we were ordered to fire the Tatar language teachers very quickly, and immediately, in the middle of the school year, in the winter, to change the curriculum,” says Solntse school director Pavel Shmakov.
The school's students agree with their principal. For six months, parents and high school students invariably came to the courts to support Pavel Shmakov.
« I like the Tatar language, and in general everything connected with it, because we generally live in Tatarstan, we must know the Tatar language, the Tatars are like our brothers,” says Alexander, a 5th grade student at Solntse school.
What future awaits the languages of the national republics will become clear after the adoption of the law. In essence, it is not the issue of teaching that is being resolved. And then whether Tatar, Mari, Chuvash, Dagestan and others will only be the languages of home communication or the cultures of multinational Russia.
Yulia Faizrakhmanova, Belsat
President Putin's recent statement addressed to the heads of the regions that it is unacceptable to force people to learn a language that is not their native language raised a reasonable question among parents of schoolchildren in national republics - did the president want to say that studying the languages of titular peoples cannot be mandatory?.. The other day, the Prosecutor's Office of Bashkortostan, “in connection with appeals from citizens,” clarified that “teaching native languages, including the Bashkir language, contrary to the consent of the students’ parents, is not allowed.” "Evening Kazan" asked the Tatarstan Prosecutor's Office to provide a similar clarification on this issue.
IT'S NOT ABOUT US, IT'S ABOUT THEM
Let us recall that on July 20, the President of Russia at an off-site meeting of the Council for interethnic relations in Yoshkar-Ola stated: “The Russian language for us is the natural spiritual framework of our entire multinational country. Everyone should know him. The languages of the peoples of Russia are also an integral part of the original culture of the peoples of Russia. Studying these languages is a right guaranteed by the Constitution, a voluntary right. Forcing a person to learn a language that is not his native language is just as unacceptable as reducing the level and time of teaching Russian. I point this out Special attention heads of regions of the Russian Federation."
The head of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Tatarstan, Engel Fattakhov, the president’s statement, it seems like Putin did not say this about our republic.
But in Bashkortostan, where all children study the Bashkir language as part of the school curriculum, they paid attention to the words of Vladimir Putin. In early August, the head of the Republic of Belarus, Rustem Khamitov, told reporters that the republican Ministry of Education “once again analyzed” the issue of language learning and decided to make changes to the “basic educational plans for the eighth and ninth grades,” where Bashkir language lessons will henceforth become optional. And the other day, the Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Belarus gave an official explanation on the “language” issue in schools. In its commentary, the supervisory authority relies on Art. 14 of the Federal Law “On Education in the Russian Federation”, according to which citizens “have the right to study their native language from among the languages of the peoples of Russia.”
“Thus, the law establishes the right, and not the obligation, to study native languages and state languages of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation... Teaching native languages, including the Bashkir language, contrary to the consent of the parents (legal representatives) of students, is not allowed,” the statement says. prosecutor's explanation.
As is known, in Tatarstan there are also many parents of schoolchildren who are dissatisfied with the fact that children, regardless of nationality, mandatory study the Tatar language in equal amounts with Russian. And even Russian children in Tatarstan study Russian as a “non-native” language according to an abbreviated curriculum in national schools. Therefore, “Evening Kazan” turned to the Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Tatarstan with a request to provide a similar explanation for parents.
The first reaction of the press service of the Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Tatarstan to our request: “Tatarstan is not Bashkiria, we do not have a similar situation with the study of native languages.” And then they asked to send an official request.
“Understand, the question is very sensitive. Here you can even lead to extremist statements...” - the supervisory authority explained the seriousness of the “language” issue.
We have sent a request to the prosecutor's office and are waiting for a response.
BETWEEN THE MOSCOW KREMLIN AND KAZAN
Meanwhile, “Evening Kazan” asked independent experts to speculate on how Tatarstan differs from Bashkiria in the situation caused by Putin’s statement, and what position our prosecutor’s office will ultimately take.
Prosecutor's office of Bashkortostan, Tatarstan, Chechnya or Ryazan region is a single federal body. She has uniform approaches and standards. The Bashkirs cannot say one thing, and the Tatars another, says lawyer Marat Kamalov, an expert at the Public Chamber of the Republic of Tatarstan. - But it happens that the prosecutor’s office is mistaken. I do not claim that the opinion of the Bashkir prosecutor’s office is wrong or correct. I do not know that. But Tatarstan has its own Constitution, which talks about two state languages - Tatar and Russian. Another thing is that the methods of teaching Tatar in schools are extremely poor, the textbooks are primitive. If not for this, the children could learn Tatar with only two lessons a week.
According to the academician's forecasts Russian Academy political science Vladimir Belyaev, the Tatarstan Prosecutor’s Office will simply avoid the “language” issue:
- She will fidget between the Moscow Kremlin and the Kazan Kremlin and, as the Minister of Education of Tatarstan, pretend that this does not concern us. Meanwhile, the problem of learning the Tatar language is like an old unhealed wound. As before, as now, I see one of her solutions - to teach children only conversational Tatar and not for five hours a week, as now, but for two.
Political scientist and historian Rais Suleymanov believes that although Putin’s statement was undoubtedly addressed to Tatarstan, it is not worth measuring Bashkortostan and Tatarstan with the same yardstick.
Tatarstan has a law “On the state languages of the Republic of Tatarstan” ( has been in operation since 1992. - "VC"), and Bashkortostan has its own language law. But the Tatarstan language speaks of the compulsory study of two state languages - Tatar and Russian - in equal amounts, while the Bashkortostan language does not stipulate compulsory study; accordingly, local legislation does not contradict the federal one in this matter. Because of this, the Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Belarus speaks about the right to study Bashkir, and not about the obligation, explains Suleymanov. - Moreover, the prosecutor's office of the republic at one time made warnings to the head of Bashkortostan about the universal study of Bashkir in schools, without taking into account the opinions of parents. It must be said that this is a rare case in prosecutorial practice. And now in Bashkiria, it seems, everything is moving towards the fact that their native language will be studied there on a voluntary basis. I assume that the Tatarstan Prosecutor’s Office will not follow the path of its colleagues and will refer to the republican law on state languages.
The head of the community “Russian language in schools of national republics” and one of the participants in the protest parent movement against the compulsory study of Tatar, Ekaterina Belyaeva, agrees with Suleymanov - the Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Tatarstan will appeal to the republican law on state languages:
- Except Putin, no one will save us from compulsory Tatar. Several years ago, we, more than 300 parents, applied to the Prosecutor General's Office of Russia, but received a reply. Perhaps now that the agreement between Russia and Tatarstan has come to an end, the situation will change in our favor. But I would like the Russian President to come to Tatarstan and explain to everyone what he meant.
They believe in the power of Putin’s word, but do not count on a positive response from the prosecutor and public organization“Committee for the protection of the rights of Russian-speaking parents and students of the Republic of Tatarstan.”
After the president’s statement, parents in Tatarstan waited for someone from the authorities to explain to us and legally justify whether we understood his words correctly. But for some reason, Putin says one thing, and officials say another, as if we live in two realities,” committee chairman Edward Nosov is perplexed. - Now the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation is discussing a draft of new federal educational standards, and in it we, to our surprise, found a clause on the compulsory study of the state languages of the republics. If such a federal standard is approved, then we will be completely surrounded by red flags. Therefore, we recently sent appeals to the Office of the President of the Russian Federation, the State Duma and the Federal Minister of Education Olga Vasilyeva. And now we are preparing appeals to the Prosecutor General’s Office - let it explain to us what Putin meant.
Photo from the VK archive
The prosecutor's office warns school directors in Tatarstan that the subjects “Tatar language” and “Tatar literature” can only be taught with the consent of parents, and teaching them contrary to consent is not allowed and demands that the existing violations be eliminated.
Copy of submission Acting prosecutor of the Vakhitovsky district A. Abutalipov addressed to the director of school No. 51 stirred up social networks last night. According to sources of Vechernyaya Kazan, similar representations were received this week by school heads throughout Tatarstan following statements from parents who were dissatisfied with compulsory Tatar lessons at the expense of Russian lessons.
The contents of the 5-page document echo Russian President Vladimir Putin's July statement that it is unacceptable to force citizens to learn a language that is not their native language and to reduce the hours of teaching Russian. Let us remind you, Minister of Education of the Republic of Tatarstan Engel Fattakhov, 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 “teaching native languages, including the Tatar language, without the consent of the parents (legal representatives) of students is not allowed,” however, as the prosecutor’s office found out, Tatar is taught to everyone at school without fail. At the same time, “from the explanation of the director of the secondary school it follows that Tatar is state language and is required to be studied. No separate written consent was requested from parents to study curriculum subjects.”
At the request of the prosecutor's office, the school director must eliminate violations and bring the perpetrators to disciplinary liability. Those guilty of violating the requirements of federal legislation, as the prosecutor's office established, are... the head teachers for academic work and national affairs, who improperly handled the duties assigned to them.
It is noteworthy that the order of the Vakhitovsky prosecutor’s office was issued on October 2, on the very 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 presentation was drawn up immediately after the arrival of Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Yuri Chaika in Kazan on September 27, and this template document was sent to all district prosecutor’s offices,” Ekaterina Belyaeva, an activist of the “Russian language in schools of national republics” community, told “Evening Kazan”.
In turn, the “Committee of Russian-Speaking Parents of Tatarstan,” citing their sources in the prosecutor’s office, reported that similar orders to eliminate violations in the teaching of the Tatar and Russian languages were received by the directors of many schools in Tatarstan.
According to parents, representatives of the Prosecutor General’s Office, who, on Putin’s instructions, will check the voluntary nature of language learning in schools, are expected to arrive in our republic in a week.