Schools in Tatarstan are changing their curriculum. The process has begun: the prosecutor's office prohibits teaching the Tatar language without parental consent

In Tatarstan, they continue to discuss the possibility of abolishing the compulsory study of the Tatar language in school. Some are for, some are against, there are a lot of arguments on both sides. "Idel.Realii" decided to collect answers from various ministries and departments and tried to answer the most important questions of parents from the position of the authorities.

THERE ARE MANY PEOPLE IN TATARSTAN WHO DO NOT WANT THEIR CHILDREN TO LEARN TATAR?

An organization created in April of this year - the “Committee of Russian-speaking Parents of Tatarstan” - stated that as of October 10, at least 2,805 applications to refuse to study it had been submitted in the republic. If you believe the map they provided, basically, they are ready to give up learning the language in cities in the east of the republic, in Kazan and areas near the capital.

DO ONLY RUSSIANS FILE SUCH APPLICATIONS?

No, there are also ethnic Tatars among them. The reluctance to study Tatar at school is usually caused not by national hostility, but by the poor level of language teaching, the lack of need to study it, and the desire to improve the level of studying Russian, since this language is required for admission to universities.

I HEARD SOMEWHERE THEY HAVE ALREADY CANCELED THE STUDY OF TATAR.

News about this, indeed, constantly appears. One of the first stories is connected with a Naberezhnye Chelny journalist Alsou Gazizova. In early September, she wrote a statement. The teacher allowed her son Mark not to attend Tatar lessons. Instead, the boy was offered something to do during this time - for example, drawing. A few days later, Gazizova was called to the school principal, where they explained that a mistake had occurred and her son should attend Tatar lessons.

CAN I WRITE A STATEMENT THAT MY CHILD DOESN'T WANT TO LEARN THE TATAR LANGUAGE?

Any parent or legal representative of the student can contact their school with such a statement.

IF I'M NOT MISTAKEN, DO PARENTS HAVE THE RIGHT TO CHOOSE A CURRICULUM FOR THEIR CHILD?

Parents or legal guardians may participate in the discussion and approval of educational plans. Their opinion regarding the study of subjects is necessarily taken into account. The school may also request separate written consent to study curriculum subjects.

IS IT TRUE THAT PARENTS ARE CALLED TO THE PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE?

Yes, but they only call those who have previously applied there themselves. There's nothing wrong with that.

WOULD IT BE POSSIBLE TO WRITE THERE?

Can. The Prosecutor General's Office together with Rospotrebnadzor will check the voluntary nature of learning the Tatar language in Tatarstan in October this year as part of Vladimir Putin's instructions. The verification must be completed in Russia before November 30.

Yes, there are already reports for some schools - this is when the prosecutor's office finds violations and asks them to correct them. Thus, this idea is actively spreading on social networks from the prosecutor’s office of the Vakhitovsky district of Kazan to the director of some district school in Kazan (the number has been erased). It says that the implementation of the legislation was checked and violations were identified. “The teaching and study of the state languages ​​of the republics of the Russian Federation should not be carried out to the detriment of the teaching and study of the state language of Russia,” the document says.

It also says that at school they were allowed to “choose” only one native language - Tatar, and this is a limitation of the law.

“Teaching the discipline “Tatar language” or “Tatar literature” in accordance with the norms of the Federal State Educational Standard (FSES), the federal basic plan and model curricula developed by the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation, can only be carried out within the subject area “Native Language” and exclusively with consent of the students’ parents (legal representatives), the prosecutor’s office responded.

In Kazan they again started talking about the need for every child to learn the Tatar language in every school. Previously, Vladimir Putin put an end to this issue, but Tatarstan United Russia members are trying to pretend that this is not a full stop, but a semicolon. It is significant that they are supported in this by propaganda media funded from the United States.

Last year, the State Council of Tatarstan decided that the teaching of the Tatar language in schools of the republic would be carried out on a voluntary basis. And now he has accepted an appeal to State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin, in which he calls for the compulsory study of the languages ​​of the national republics to be enshrined in federal educational standards.

A week ago, Speaker of the State Council Farid Mukhametshin spoke on the same topic in an interview with TASS, saying that the voluntary study of the Tatar language has created a split in society and needs to be abolished. “I think that voluntariness needs to be removed from this one, it has split and driven a wedge between Russians and Tatars, there are children sitting in the same class, why create such antagonism?” - he said.

Let us note that there was no information about “antagonism” from other sources.

The director of the House of Friendship of Peoples of Tatarstan, deputy of the State Council of the republic Irek Sharipov, spoke out most clearly so far:

“Slavery was once legal. And the Holocaust was legal from the point of view of the state, which was later recognized as criminal. Repression was legal during Stalin's time. We must not allow something that is not accepted by the people to become legal.”

We have to admit that the issue seems to be resolved with the imposition of the languages ​​of the titular peoples of national republics on all children is still relevant. At least in Tatarstan.

Now the “problem of oppression of the Tatar language” is actively covered by propaganda publications funded by the State Department and foreign agents “Current Time” and “Idel. Realities." Trying not to go beyond the framework of Russian legislation, they in every possible way support “regional identity”, but in fact, they assist the separatists.

Deputy head of the press service of the head of Tatarstan, Liliya Galimova, of course, rejected all suspicions of separatism:

Let us remind you that the logic of the opponents of the “obligation” looks extremely simple. Russian Federation– a multinational state where representatives of more than a hundred nations live. Some regions are national, and if in Tatarstan there is one “titular” nation, then in Dagestan there are a dozen of them. Only polyglot geniuses can learn all languages.

The state language of Russia and the means of interethnic communication is the Russian language - therefore everyone should know it. National languages, to quote Vladimir Putin, “are an integral part of the culture of the peoples of the country, and the Constitution guarantees the right to study these languages ​​voluntarily.”

“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,” these are also the words of the Russian President, which he said at a meeting of the Council on Interethnic Relations in Yoshkar-Ola in July 2017 . It would seem that the deputies from United Russia can add to this - and it is this party that Sharipov, Mukhametshin, and most of the other signatories of the appeal about the need for “obligation” represent?

However, the voluntary nature of learning the Tatar language does not suit the Tatar United Russia members.

At the same time, the President of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov (by the way, the last remaining head of a subject of the Federation in Russia bearing the title of president) in December 2017 came up with quite reasonable initiatives:

“The language must be attractive if the language is used and the learning is interesting. The Tatar language system itself was very complex, and therefore caused some discontent not only among the Russian population, but also among the Tatars. Therefore, we need to work on popularizing the Tatar language. We will, of course, also work on online learning.”

And in February 2018, free courses for studying the Tatar language opened in mosques in Tatarstan - and representatives of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the republic spoke about the high interest of parishioners.

That is, nothing prevents both ethnic Tatars and representatives of other nationalities from studying Tatar. And also - launch programs to increase the attractiveness of your native language, at least at the local, at the federal, at least at the global level.

Therefore, words about “slavery” or “Holocaust” are an ordinary provocation. Let us note, by the way, that Jews used the languages ​​of surrounding peoples for almost 2000 years, and only after the creation of the state of Israel was Hebrew partly revived and partly created from scratch (in terms of modern terminology). The centuries-old lack of studying the native language did not harm the “preservation of the nation” at all. Unlike the Holocaust, which destroyed a significant part of European Jews.

Another striking example of the meaninglessness of the “obligation” is shown to us by the Odessa city council and the mayor of this city, Gennady Trukhanov. Both the city mayor and the majority of Odessa deputies were born and raised in Ukraine. And in Soviet times, and especially after gaining independence, the Ukrainian language was compulsory for study in all schools. However, neither Trukhanov nor the overwhelming majority of deputies have mastered the state language and are unable to speak it even under the threat of repression.

So why is it pointless to waste the time of children living in Tatarstan and other national republics on compulsory learning of languages ​​that will never be useful to them?

Children whose parents think about preserving the national culture will voluntarily (or under the coercion of relatives, but this is completely different from coercion by the state) learn their native language. And the rest would better spend this time gaining other knowledge that is more relevant to their professional future.

On the issue of voluntary learning of national languages, point was delivered in July 2017. And neither the deputies of the Tatar State Council nor anyone else will be able to turn it into a semicolon.

In Tatarstan, “coercion” in Tatar language was exchanged for personal safety?

Today's meeting of the State Council of Tatarstan was announced the day before in the local media as historic: the parliament was supposed to make a final decision on the compulsory teaching of the Tatar language in the schools of the republic. As a result, the issue of language “coercion” was put as the first item on the agenda. But, contrary to expectations, the discussion took place in an unusually casual manner - quickly and without debate. The issue was discussed for less than 15 minutes, after which we quickly moved on to discussing the budget for 2018.

The prosecutor of Tatarstan acted as the main (and only) speaker Ildus Nafikov, who read from the podium a five-minute report that was dry in style but devastating in content. “The absolute priority is to ensure the implementation of the constitutional rights of citizens,” Nafikov recalled. - A decrease in the volume of teaching the Russian language in schools of the republic has been recorded. The standards were observed in only 24 schools. There was also a violation of the rights and freedoms to voluntarily study the Tatar language with the imposition of final tests that affect both the transfer to the 10th grade and the average score of the certificate. The interference of republican and municipal bodies in the autonomy of educational institutions has been noted. The combination of these violations not only violated educational standards, but also had a negative impact on ensuring freedom of movement and choice of place of residence for citizens within the Russian Federation.”

In total, according to Nafikov, during an inspection of all 1,412 schools in the republic, the prosecutor’s office and Rosobrnadzor recorded 3,856 violations. All almost four thousand cases concerned what the President of Russia had previously warned about - the deprivation of Russian-speaking citizens of Russia of their constitutional rights to freedom of choice of Russian as their native language and the imposition of the Tatar language on them as a compulsory language. As a result, a high decline in the volume of studying the Russian language, the state language of the Russian Federation, was revealed in Tatarstan.

Ildus Nafikov reported that since the beginning of the inspection ( mid-October - EADaily) the prosecutor's office received 1,716 complaints regarding the facts of “obligation” in schools to the detriment of Russian. “They are all tested and approved. The voluntary nature of learning the native language is ensured where the curriculum provides for its teaching.” The prosecutor thanked the teachers who, during the inspection, promptly signaled to the prosecutor's office and Rosobrnadzor about language imbalances in the educational process, about the forceful pressure on teachers, students and parents when Moscow “took up the language.” “In difficult conditions, you reacted in a stately manner, wisely and correctly. We prevented the incitement of hatred and ensured the continuity of the education process.”

Nafikov, outlining the situation with the Russian language in Tatarstan, placed the main emphasis on the word “discord” - a synonym for the concept of “extremism” ( Art. 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - approx. EADaily). “I must warn “hot heads” against illegal actions and statements of an extremist nature. They will be harshly and decisively suppressed, no matter from which side they come. The prosecutor’s office is against inciting passions and conflict situations.”

Social networks have already noted the striking similarity of the intonation with which Nafikov promised punishment for “linguistic extremists” with the intonation Vladimir Putin, when in 1999 he predicted terrorists would die in a latrine. From this, public observers concluded: Nafikov spoke in parliament not for himself, but for the President of Russia. Which is logical - according to the Russian Constitution, the prosecutor of Tatarstan is accountable to the Moscow Kremlin, and not to the Kazan Kremlin. Yes, and Nafikov was appointed prosecutor in 2013 by Vladimir Putin, not Rustam Minnikhanov.

From the prosecutor’s dry tone, the republic drew the correct conclusion: Moscow has taken the language problem in Tatarstan seriously and, as they say, will punish, regardless of the status, position, ratings of United Russia and other attributes of the federal “table of ranks.”

The reaction of the audience in the State Council to Nafikov’s speech is indicative. State Councilor sitting in the State Council hall Mintimer Shaimiev was mournfully silent. Although usually the ex-president of Tatarstan, when it comes to the attributes of “Tatar sovereignty,” does not skimp on emotions. From this, observers concluded that Shaimiev himself, most likely, decided not to get into trouble and warned other members of the “old guard” against this. Which, in particular, includes the President of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov(former Minister of Finance under Shaimiev) and current Minister of Education of Tatarstan (mechanical engineer by profession) Engel Fattakhov. Judging by the fact that Engel Navapovich also did not react to the prosecutor’s report, he assessed Shaimiev’s silence correctly.

Another “veteran”, the Speaker of the State Council, correctly heard Nafikov’s warning to Moscow Farit Mukhametshin. He addressed deputies with a warning “not to politicize the problem.” Politicization is another key word of the “language” meeting of the State Council, a kind of bogeyman. Although the long-term imposition of the Tatar language on schoolchildren of multinational Tatarstan cannot be called anything other than nationalism, and can only be explained by the nationalistic whims of the leadership. The Tatar language, to the detriment of Russian, is a symbol of Tatarstan as a “sovereign state”. Otherwise, the “fathers of sovereignty” from the beginning of the nineties nurtured “sovereignty” with only one goal - to ensure themselves the status of lifelong masters of Tatarstan, along with all that it entails - legal immunity and the opportunity to bargain with Moscow.

“The threat of the death of the Tatar language” due to Russification, assimilation, globalization... as well as other far-fetched theses of nationalists in the leadership of Tatarstan are nothing more than pathos. A significant part of the State Council deputies have long been aware of the nuances “on the language issue.” Most likely, this is precisely why the people’s representatives chose not to argue with how Moscow assessed the linguistic “well-being” of Tatarstan, but to approve what Moscow proposed in the person of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation. According to Nafikov’s statement, from now on the Tatar language can be studied in the region “only voluntarily, on the basis of the written consent of parents or legal representatives of students within two hours a week at the expense of the part formed by the participants in educational relations.”

True, speaker Mukhametshin could not do without a remark. According to him, the issue of studying the Tatar language in the schools of the republic “is of great concern to the public,” and deputies received many applications from “concerned citizens.” From whom exactly, to which deputies, and what was said in these appeals, Mukhametshin did not say. He also said: “The Ministry of Education and Science has a lot of work to do to adopt curricula in schools that include the Tatar language in them for 2 hours. A set of measures is needed, including changes to work programs in the Tatar language, updating Tatar literature, methodological documents, advanced training and retraining of personnel.”

Let us note that since 2012, the school of each subject of the Russian Federation, together with the parents of students, selects a training plan from several proposed by the federal state educational standard and the federal law “On Education”. In the case of Tatarstan (as with any national region), school directors and parents have the right to choose both the notorious “regional component” and a federal plan - without hours for the national language, but with an emphasis on Russian, literature and one European language. However, Farit Mukhametshin, as before, kept silent about such nuances, and now he has not reported about it. As well as the fact that the mentioned “volume of 2 hours” becomes voluntary.

The capitulation of ethnocracy was funny to watch from the outside. Before Ildus Nafikov’s report to the State Council, the republic was still trying to create the illusion of a protest wave with the help of administrative resources. Previously, in the image of a man-made defense of “linguistic sovereignty” there was a conditional “teacher of the national language” who was left without a job. When this resource had exhausted itself, the ethnocrats covered themselves with Russian teachers, appointed to the role of “selfless defenders” of Tatar to the detriment of Russian. The director of a specialized lyceum in Kazan became the vanguard of the anti-federal pedagogical front. Pavel Shmakov- “Russian and Finnish teacher” (in 2000, Shmakov left for permanent residence in Finland, but in 2011 he returned to Kazan - approx. EADaily ), “icon” of liberal-oriented parents of Kazan schoolchildren. The portal Idel.Realii, associated with Radio Liberty, eagerly quoted Shmakov, who stood up for the “defense of cultural diversity”, which was transformed in the minds of the teacher-director into the defense of language “coercion”: “We believe that children cannot be divided into Tatars and Russians, that the Tatars go to their Tatar language, and the Russians go to play football.” According to Shmakov, all schoolchildren should learn Tatar, and this will be the case at his school SOLNTSE.

Shmakov compared the prosecutor's inspections to walking through delicate flowers in soldier's boots. The prosecutor's checks outraged the teacher, who, in his desire to punish the martinet inspectors, agreed to the point of absurdity: “They photographed children's underwear, personal items...”. But Shmakov’s over-emotional and confusing video interview only had an impact on people who are completely unaware of the realities of Tatarstan. And the way the vertical of the republic, listening to Nafikov, took up the veil, only confirms the well-known expression “your shirt is closer to your body”: frightened ethnocrats, in order to maintain personal safety, quickly “surrendered” their native Tatar language, which only yesterday they insisted on compulsory learning or not with foam at the mouth.

Let us note that in exactly the same way - for the sake of “preserving everything acquired by back-breaking labor” (over 27 years of ethnocracy), the notorious agreement on the division of powers between the federal center and the republic was quietly surrendered; at the beginning of this year, a whole cohort of previously “untouchable” nationalists went to trial. activists. For the sake of peace and well-being, the long-lived high offices of Kazan were ready to show “multi-vectorism”, turning from defenders of the “state of Tatarstan” into “patriots of Russia.” Against this background, in the republic, in competent circles, opinions are increasingly heard that Rustam Minnikhanov will not serve out his term as president of Tatarstan, and the “old guard” will still have to answer to Russian justice for all past ethnocratic “pranks”.

These opinions are partly supported by the early calculations of some Moscow experts. According to them, only Tatarstan’s status as a “super-prosperous” region and the absence of conflicts previously saved the resignation of President Rustam Minnikhanov. The illusion of “super prosperity” burst at the beginning of 2017 along with the collapse of the Tatfondbank “empire”. And Kazan’s desire to follow the old ethnocratic course at all costs led to Vladimir Putin’s speech in Yoshkar-Ola and comprehensive “language” checks in schools in the region. According to the results of these checks, resignation is the simplest punishment that can await the highest officials of the republic.

The only opportunity to learn a language for preschoolers is to join a Tatar group or a Tatar kindergarten

The language revolution, having done away with Tatar in schools, reached kindergartens. The 2013 manuals regulating the compulsory study of the state language of Tatarstan by preschoolers are not subject to application - the letter was signed by the new Minister of Education Rafis Burganov on the last working day of last year. While supporters of the voluntary Tatar “shout: hurray! And they throw caps into the air,” for Tatar parents, the letter from the new minister pulled the rug out from under their feet: there is virtually no opportunity left to learn their native language in kindergartens, they say. Details in the material of Realnoe Vremya.

Kindergartens were reminded of the Federal State Educational Standard, in which there is no place for Tatar

On New Year's Eve, the language revolution, which ended the compulsory study of the Tatar language in schools, reached kindergartens. On December 29, the Minister of Education and Science of the Republic of Tatarstan Rafis Burganov sent a letter to the heads of district education departments “On planning educational activities in preschool educational institutions.”

In short, kindergartens were reminded that they must create a class schedule and the amount of educational workload in accordance with the Federal State Educational Standard and SanPin, additionally informing that the manual of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Tatarstan dated November 8, 2013 cannot be applied. This manual just reinforced the compulsory study of the Tatar language in kindergartens.

As the Minister of Education and Science of Tatarstan Rafis Burganov told Realnoe Vremya, there is no talk of abolishing Tatar in kindergartens; they simply followed the schools in kindergartens and brought the program into compliance with the requirements of the prosecutor’s office.

At one time, we had submissions from the prosecutor’s office regarding secondary schools, and we sent corresponding letters, the same as for secondary schools with programs, with our methodological proposals to those institutions that also regulate the teaching of state and native languages,” Burganov commented.

As Rafis Burganov said, there is no talk of abolishing Tatar in kindergartens; they simply followed the schools in kindergartens and brought the program into compliance with the requirements of the prosecutor’s office. Photo by Maxim Platonov

To the clarifying question of the Realnoe Vremya correspondent: “That is, in kindergartens, just like in schools, parents will be able to choose whether or not to attend Tatar lessons?” - Rafis Burganov answered: “Yes.”

Repay the debt: watches in Tatar borrowed from drawing and mathematics

What was criminal in the 2013 manual that kindergartens were prohibited from using it? According to it, children in the younger group studied the Tatar language during games, and starting from the middle group - three times a week for 20 minutes. In order not to go overboard with the academic load, which, for example, in the preparatory group should be no more than 14 lessons per week, the time for two Tatar classes was borrowed from other subjects, and the third hour was added in violation of SanPiN.

Thus, in the middle group, hours were taken away from sculpting/appliqué, drawing and broadening one’s horizons. In the senior group - in the subjects “Cognition” and drawing, and in the preparatory group - in the “formation of elementary mathematical concepts” and drawing.

To say that these lessons were canceled completely is wrong. They were transferred to “regime moments”, that is, they were engaged in between times - during the time allotted for games, or were included in the schedule additionally, or additionally, but as paid services. This is what angered some parents. In addition, parents are sure that drawing and modeling are more useful than the Tatar language, as they develop fine motor skills, and bilingualism at an early age is harmful, especially for children with speech therapy problems.

In the preparatory group, children have the maximum load provided for by SanPiN. This means that there should be no more clubs or activities. Otherwise, there will be overwork, the child will not have time to recover, and will get sick. It’s just that children still have to prepare for school outside of kindergarten, take extra classes, and decide on a hellish overload from the age of 6 just so that the child can continue to study normally. Or make a choice between preparing a child for school and his health, says Raya Demidova, head of the Parent Community of Tatarstan.

Children in the younger group studied the Tatar language during games, and starting from the middle group - 3 times a week for 20 minutes. Photo by Gulandam Zaripova

There is Tatar, but there is no opportunity to learn it

Burganov’s letter canceling the 2013 teaching manual in kindergartens was called a New Year’s gift by opponents of compulsory learning of Tatar. Back in November 2017, they began collecting complaints about the forced Tatar language in kindergartens. Now they have created a form for refusing Tatar, which is offered to all parents to fill out, where they categorically demand “not to teach our child the Tatar language in any form and according to any educational programs” and “to exclude the work of a teacher teaching the Tatar language with our child in his free time.” educational activity time, without creating a Tatar language environment in communication with him.”

While some parents are rejoicing over the victory over Tatar in kindergartens, others are worried. According to Chulpan Khamidova, an activist of the Tatar Ata-Analary community, the teacher of the kindergarten her children attend was upset on the first day after the holidays that they would no longer have Tatar language lessons.

What we feared most happened: optimistic statements “Tatar is available, anyone who wants to can learn it,” but in fact there is no technical ability to teach it. Tatar was taught three times a week for 20 minutes, now it has been replaced by modeling and drawing, and there is no time left in the schedule for Tatar,” says Khamidova.

According to Chulpan Khamidova, the only opportunity to learn Tatar is to get into a Tatar kindergarten or Tatar group, but there are not enough of them.

There are, of course, more Tatar kindergartens than schools, but given that we, for example, could not get there, there is a problem. We also couldn’t get into the Tatar group: first we were told that there was no group our age, then there were no teachers. Previously, Tatar lessons somehow compensated us for this,” says Chulpan Khamidova.

The only opportunity for kids to learn Tatar is to go to a Tatar kindergarten or Tatar group, but there are not enough of them. Photo info-islam.ru

Now, according to Realnoe Vremya’s interlocutor, the only hope for Tatar parents is that, in connection with the new order, Tatar groups will become more in demand and they will be opened in kindergartens.

Daria Turtseva

Disputes about the need to study the Tatar language in schools flare up every day. The prosecutor's office began to conduct inspections in educational institutions of Kazan

Parents of Kazan schoolchildren, demanding the abolition of compulsory study of the Tatar language, seem to be happy. The matter moved from a dead point. Despite the tough position of the republican Ministry of Education, they say, we will not change anything in the system, the prosecutor’s office began to conduct inspections in educational institutions on instructions received from the Kremlin. And the first results are already there.

Even in conditions of total silence from all structures - from schools to the prosecutor's office - official documents were leaked onto the Internet, thanks to parents. Thus, according to the request of the prosecutor’s office, school directors in the Vakhitovsky district were required to report on the curriculum, current schedules, and also provide written consent from parents to teach the Tatar language. A number of schools underwent prosecutorial inspections that revealed violations. Parents vying with each other to tell stories from their schools. Thus, the mother of a second-grader, Raisa Demidova, wrote an application for her daughter to study according to a version of the curriculum for schools with the Russian language of instruction and for the exclusion of the subjects “Tatar language” and “Tatar literature” from the child’s program.

Right to choose

“The compulsory study of the Tatar language and literature leads to a catastrophic overload of the child. In addition to the fact that children have to make up for the missing hours of Russian language and literature every day at home through independent studies, they additionally have to learn an unfamiliar language from scratch. As a result, the time for preparing homework increases to 2-3 hours daily. And this is in 2nd grade. At the same time, schools hand out statements of consent for the inclusion of a child in a group for additional study of the Russian (in some schools - Tatar) language. A second-grader already has a maximum workload of 26 hours - due to compulsory lessons. Additional classes come at the expense of the student’s personal time and lead to even greater overload. Parents are faced with a choice: agree to additional classes, but at the same time overload the child even more, or refuse them, despite the catastrophic shortage of Russian language lessons,” says Demidova.

The Chairman of the Committee of Russian-Speaking Parents of Tatarstan, Edward Nosov, hopes that the situation in educational institutions will change. “I am the parent of a student myself. I encountered this problem eight years ago. In 2011, when my eldest child was in primary school, I collected signatures to choose a program with “Russian language of instruction”. In the evening I went home. Only three people from the class did not sign. But then the school director refused. I filed a statement of claim with the district court, but it did not take my side either. The Supreme Court of Tatarstan also refused to allow my child to fully study the Russian language. In 26 years of teaching the Tatar language, Russians have not spoken it,” Nosov shares his opinion.

According to the activist, every day they receive new data on inspections in schools not only in Kazan, but throughout the region. “We hope that the activities of the prosecutor’s office will produce results. We want schools to use multiple curricula simultaneously. And everyone will choose for themselves: to study the Russian language fully or to learn Russian and their native languages,” says Nosov.