What's happening to Tatar? Questions about the possible abolition of compulsory study. Schools in Tatarstan are changing curricula

The recent statement by President Putin, addressed to the heads of the regions, that it is unacceptable to force people to learn a language that is not their native language, caused parents of schoolchildren to be alarmed. national republics a reasonable question - did the president want to say that the study of the languages ​​of the titular peoples cannot be compulsory?.. Recently, the Prosecutor's Office of Bashkortostan, “in connection with appeals from citizens,” explained that “teaching native languages, including the Bashkir language, contrary to the consent of the students’ parents, 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 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 within school curriculum all children study Bashkir language, drew 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 Federal Law “On Education in the Russian Federation”, according to which citizens “have the right to study 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 Tatar language V equal volumes with Russian. And even Russian children in Tatarstan study Russian as a “non-native” language according to an abbreviated program 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 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 the expert Public Chamber RT lawyer Marat Kamalov. - 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. - The Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation is currently discussing a draft of new federal educational standards, and in it, to our surprise, we 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 the July statement Russian President Vladimir Putin 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... head teachers educational work and national issues, which did not properly deal with the responsibilities 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.

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 official language 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 us sample curricula providing for the study of the state languages ​​of the 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 suggestion of the members of the Presidium of the State Council, I make a proposal: do not open the debate, move on to considering a draft resolution on this issue, and according to protocol, the State Council Committee on Education, Culture, Science and National Affairs, 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 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

Disputes about the need to study the Tatar language in schools flare up every day. The prosecutor's office began conducting checks in educational institutions 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 of all structures - from schools to the prosecutor's office - thanks to parents, leaked to the Internet official documents. 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, preparation time 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 the eldest child was studying at primary school, I collected signatures for choosing 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 submitted to statement of claim to the district court, but he didn’t take my side either. Supreme Court Tatarstan also denied my child a full study of 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.

In contact with

Classmates

On September 20, it turned out that 1,536 parents from 92 schools in Tatarstan wrote a refusal to compulsorily teach the Tatar language for their children. This information was published in the group of the “Committee of Russian-speaking Parents of Tatarstan”.

According to the message, the refusal was written by parents from Kazan, Naberezhnye Chelny, Nizhnekamsk and Zelenodolsk.

The day before, the Tatarstan Russian Culture Society, as well as the Committee for the Protection of the Rights of Russian-Speaking Parents and Students, approached the head of the republic, Rustam Minnikhanov, with a request to state the official position of the Tatarstan authorities on instructions from Russian President Vladimir Putin regarding the study of the Tatar language.

In their address to the President of the Republic, the leaders of the 2 public associations Mikhail Shcheglov and Eduard Nosov asked Rustam Minnikhanov to organize Parent meeting of the Republic of Tatarstan on the topic “Parents of the Republic of Tatarstan - for strengthening federal values ​​in the education system of the regions of Russia.”

The topic of studying national languages ​​in the republics became relevant again after Vladimir Putin spoke on July 20 about the inadmissibility of forced learning in the subjects of the Russian Federation of languages ​​that are not native.

On September 15, a debate took place in Kazan on the topic “Tatar language in the Russian education system, to be or.?”, which gradually turned into a heated discussion. It was not possible to reconcile supporters and opponents of compulsory study of the Tatar language on an equal basis with Russian at the debate.

The day before, Tatarstan lost its “special status” in the Russian Federation, since the special agreement between the republic and the federal center was not extended. Will the essentially unconstitutional law of Tatarstan on the compulsory study of the Tatar language in the republic be ultimately repealed?

In fact, this is not a problem for Tatarstan alone,” notes the director of the Fund for the Development of Institutions civil society“Public Diplomacy” Alexey Kochetkov. - It concerns all of Russia. If we proceed from what we have welfare state, as is written in the Constitution of the country, then such a state should take care not only of a decent standard of living, but also take care of increasing the level of development of citizens. And knowledge of the state language plays an important role here.

Look what happened in the Russian-speaking part of Ukraine. When they began to push out the Russian language everywhere from all levels of education, Ukrainian language never got higher high level. As a result, now a significant part of young Ukrainians do not really know not only Ukrainian, but also Russian. And even if he knows Ukrainian, the scope of its application remains extremely limited. This is noticeable even when you read the Russian-language Ukrainian press. It can be seen how the level of literacy among Ukrainian journalists writing in Russian has sharply decreased.

And similar processes have occurred and are occurring in those national republics on the territory of Russia where, to the detriment of the Russian language, compulsory study of the languages ​​of the so-called titular ethnic groups is imposed.

The Russian language is the basis of all Russian national culture, as well as language interethnic communication not only in Russia, but also in the post-Soviet space. Within Russian culture, not only Great Russians, but also representatives of all other ethnic groups of Russia are successfully developing. And if we impose some other language as the state language in one of the regions of Russia, the results could be sad. Yes, for example, Tatar nationalists will rejoice. But at the same time, not only Russian, but also Tatar youth will find themselves at a disadvantage if they want to enroll in a university in Moscow or Nizhny Novgorod, where a good knowledge of the Russian language is required.

I graduated from school in Moscow. Tatars, native Muscovites, studied with me. They studied Russian at school like everyone else, but no one stopped them from speaking Tatar among themselves and in their families, learning their native language and culture.

I have a feeling that people who talk about the need for compulsory learning of the Tatar language actually care little about the Tatar language and culture. They are more concerned about creating a different identity, different from the all-Russian one. Moreover, the continuation of the practice of compulsory (in fact, forced) learning of the Tatar language will lead to increased tension at the international level. It turns out that interethnic tensions in the country are being financed from the state budget. As a result, this may lead to the fact that our so-called elites of titular ethnic groups will declare that their republics have matured into independent existence. And all Russians who disagree with this will be asked to leave, as was already the case in the nineties in the Baltic states. (Actually, several years ago in Kazan, Tatar nationalists already stood with posters “Suitcase-station-Ryazan” - approx.).

On the other hand, we constantly emphasize that the peculiarity of Russia, the Russian world, is that since the time of Russian Empire We preserve the diversity of cultures of all peoples living in our country. However, preserving culture is impossible without preserving the national language. Perhaps there is reason for concern on the part of the same Tatar intelligentsia that few people will want to learn the Tatar language if its compulsory study is abolished?

We know the example of Russian emigration after the 1917 revolution. According to various sources, from 800 thousand to half a million people lived in France alone. This is approximately the number of some small people on the territory of Russia. I know a considerable number of third and fourth generation emigrant families who still speak Russian and know Russian culture. Moreover, the question was never raised that in places where Russians live densely, the French state should create and finance schools where Russian is taught. Therefore, knowing your native language, regardless of where you live, is first and foremost a matter of choice. Yes, the state can support the culture of small nations at the local level. If someone thinks that this is not enough and it is necessary to study the Evenki language more deeply, there is a proven way - the creation of non-governmental organizations, private schools, etc. Those who believe that the language of their people must be supported, one way or another participate in the financing of all these endeavors. But the task of the state is to ensure that a person living in Tatarstan, regardless of whether he is Tatar or Russian, can receive a high-quality education, study the state language of Russia and, if desired, enroll in a university anywhere in the Russian Federation. But it turns out that often parents of students from the same Tatarstan have to hire tutors so that their children do not write with errors in Russian.

It is known that in the Tatar language in Soviet time the Tatars spoke less and less. Waiver of compulsory study of this language at school can lead to his actual disappearance? Maybe it makes sense to make the Tatar language mandatory for those who are Tatar by passport, for example?

In Soviet times, in the same Ukraine, the Ukrainian language was studied in schools, Ukrainian authors, loyal to the Soviet regime, often had the opportunity to publish their creations in huge editions. However, few people read them. And until now, Russian-language literature in Ukraine is in much greater demand than Ukrainian-language literature, despite all imaginable and inconceivable prohibitions. In Russia, the situation is traditionally different. If it were not for the Soviet government, which is traditionally criticized by the same Tatar nationalists, today few people would even speak the Tatar language.

I would like to say to Tatar nationalists - let your writers write such works that not only Tatars, but also other peoples will want to read them in the Tatar language. And everything will be fine with your language without forced learning of it by those for whom it is not native.

Forcing ethnic Tatars to learn the Tatar language, in my opinion, is also wrong. This is reminiscent of the policy of Jewish communities, which locked themselves in ghettos in the 17th century. And after some time, Jewish youth could no longer leave this ghetto. It turns out that we are driving people into a cultural ghetto. What if a Tatar or mixed family doesn’t want this? We are again dividing people artificially. Russian Tatar origin must have the same rights as a Russian of Russian origin. Walls within the state must be destroyed, not erected. Why create a wall between Russian Great Russians and Russian Tatars?

Most often, those who talk about multiculturalism, about additional preferences for certain small nations, think about their own selfish interests.

In your opinion, will the federal center be able to ensure that in Tatarstan compulsory education remains only in Russian?

Russia has no other choice: if we want to preserve the unity of the country, this must be done. In fact, the second cold war we are in a very difficult situation. Many people simply do not realize this. If now the federal center gives way, all ethnic and even regional nationalisms will come out of all the cracks. And we will not at all preserve interethnic peace if we indulge the nationalists in the Russian republics, but will finally achieve it. The only way to destroy Russia is to tear it apart from the inside. Since outsiders are afraid to do this, they try to act through the creation of alternative identities. Our task is to strengthen a single Russian civilization, to which all the peoples of Russia belong, introducing into it our own ethnic characteristics.