Tatarstan: parents of schoolchildren refused to kneel

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

“A class teacher can bring any parent to their knees,” said the Minister of Education of Tatarstan Rafis Burganov. Thus, he “transparently hinted” to his subordinates that they could impose Tatar language lessons on schoolchildren. Parents have already complained about Burganov to the prosecutor's office. We have to understand whether the chair of the Minister of Education of Tatarstan is not "cursed".

According to the current legislation, it is possible to study the languages of the peoples of Russia as a native language on a voluntary basis at the request of the parents. Russian as a national language is a compulsory subject in all Russian schools. Last year in Tatarstan there was a scandal caused by the fact that children of all nationalities were forced to learn Tatar as well. The problem was solved, but it seems that not everyone understood it.

The Minister of Education of the Republic, Rafis Burganov, during a speech at the teachers' council in Naberezhnye Chelny, said that "the class teacher can put any parent on his knees," including when choosing a language to study at school.

Of course, the parents did not want to kneel down. On the contrary, they turned to the Minister of Education of the Russian Federation Olga Vasilyeva and the Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika with requests to check Burganov for the suitability of his position and, if possible, to bring to criminal responsibility for abuse of power.

“In this part of his speech to teachers and school administrators, Rafis Burganov actually calls on them to put pressure on parents in violation of not only the rights of the legal representatives themselves, but also of their minor children, using their authority and official position,” the statement said.

Burganov tried to justify himself, noting that "the class teacher must ensure that the voluntary choice of the language is ensured." "The class teacher at all times has been an indisputable authority not only for children, but also for parents, so I expressed confidence that teachers will approach this issue (the choice of a native language for studying in schools of the republic - LOOK note) with all responsibility", - he explained his position.

So he explained that it would be better not to explain.

The head of the Commission of the Public Chamber of Russia for the harmonization of interethnic and interreligious relations, Iosif Diskin, in an interview with the VZGLYAD newspaper, expressed the opinion that Burganov's statement was “an excess of official powers, and one of the commission's proposals would apply to the prosecutor’s office with a request to check whether there was an excess of official powers.

In addition, Burganov violated the principle of freedom of choice, Diskin believes. “There must be freedom. Parents can be persuaded to choose their national language. But to come up with considerations of psychological pressure and pressure on parents is a gross violation of the principle of freedom of choice, - said the head of the OPRF commission.

At the same time, he urged not to consider that the minister's statement was agreed with the leadership and reflects the official position of Kazan.

“President of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov is a very careful and balanced person. The opinion of the minister should not be regarded as the opinion of the entire leadership of Tatarstan. I am convinced that there are different opinions. The position of the minister is well known; he is a great adherent of national languages. And this is wonderful, this is his job. In my opinion, here we are dealing with kurtosis, when emotions were above reason, overwhelmed the limits of the permissible. If the leadership of the republic realizes that the overlap beyond the permissible puts Burganov out of office, this is their decision. If they correct him, then this is also their decision,”Diskin summed up.

During a meeting of the Presidential Council for Interethnic Relations in Yoshkar-Ola last summer, Vladimir Putin said the following: “Forcing a person to learn a language that is not their native language is just as unacceptable as reducing the level and time of teaching Russian. I would like to draw the attention of the heads of the regions of the Russian Federation to this”.

In November last year, Burganov's predecessor, the former Minister of Education of Tatarstan Engel Fattakhov, signed a curriculum that required to continue learning Tatar without fail and teach Russian to teach on a voluntary basis.

The prosecutor's office of Tatarstan said that the minister had gone beyond his competence, and in early December the president of the republic dismissed him from office.

Now the question arises whether this chair is "damned", or whether Burganov still succumbed to emotions and the law will be respected, and the ministry will not require class teachers to "press" on parents so that they enroll their children in a "voluntary-compulsory manner" to study the Tatar language.