Children of migrants are diagnosed with Russian

The Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation has prepared diagnostic materials for assessing the language adaptation of migrant children. The head of the department, Sergei Kravtsov, said that based on the results, schoolchildren can be sent to additional Russian language courses. In addition, the educational department also published tests to “assess the sociocultural identity (adaptation)” of children with “migration experience.”

The Minister of Education of the Russian Federation Sergei Kravtsov said on Tuesday, November 14, during parliamentary hearings in the Federation Council that migrant children will begin to be tested for Russian language proficiency in Russian schools. “Based on the results of such diagnostics, when developing a curriculum, additional hours or additional courses may be provided for studying the Russian language as part of extracurricular activities or additional education,” the minister explained.

This statement, we note, was preceded by a lively discussion in Russian society. Thus, last summer, the head of the Presidential Council for Human Rights Valery Fadeev statedthat from 50% to 75% of children with “migration experience” know the Russian language poorly or not at all, and in some schools in Moscow and St. Petersburg, according to Mr. Fadeev, there are up to 20% of such students. At the same time, the head of the HRC mentioned for the first time that the Ministry of Education plans to create school programs for such children to study Russian as a foreign language, as well as special courses for teacher training. Then the head of the party “A Just Russia – For Truth” Sergei Mironov asked Sergei Kravtsov “to consider urgent measures for the socialization and adaptation of children of foreign migrants.” In particular, the SRZP proposed limiting the number of foreign children and children with insufficient knowledge of the Russian language and allocating for them a quota of no more than 10%, as well as introducing in schools where “the number of children who speak Russian as a foreign language exceeds 3% of the total number students”, paid courses for additional study of the Russian language.

On Tuesday, Sergei Kravtsov reported that the ministry had prepared diagnostic materials to assess the language adaptation of children with a “migration history.” “Kommersant” got acquainted with the section “Diagnostic materials for children who do not speak or have poor command of the Russian language”which appeared on the portal “Unified Content of General Education” (includes tests for primary, secondary and secondary school students).

In particular, input diagnostic tasks in the Russian language have been published for students of the first and 5th–11th grades. At the same time, tasks for general and secondary school students are ranked by difficulty and include tests of elementary, basic and advanced levels.

In addition to the entrance diagnostics for the level of language proficiency, tests for “assessing the sociocultural identity (adaptation) of a child” for students in grades 5–7, 8–9, and 10–11 also appeared on the portal. Assignments for grades 5–7 include diagnostics of the student’s spiritual and moral development, readiness for self-development, and conflict. For example, in the course of diagnosing the level of conflict, students are asked to take aim by “choosing a target” and identifying the leading eye, as well as interlocking their hands in a “Napoleonic pose” and remembering which hand will be on top. Then, based on the “psychophysiological characteristics of the child,” the teacher is asked to interpret the student’s choice. Tests for grades 8–9 and 10–11 also contain the listed types of diagnostics, but they include “diagnostics of knowledge of the history and culture of the Russian Federation.” Thus, eighth- and ninth-graders are asked to correlate descriptions of biblical characters with their names, identify two false statements about Eid (Islamic fasting), and also compare twelve images with “canonical images of icons.” Diagnostics of knowledge of the history and culture of the Russian Federation for grades 10–11, among other things, includes a task to correlate the names of mosques and their photographs: students are asked to find images of the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, the Cathedral Mosque in St. Petersburg, the Al-Haram Mosque in Mecca, the Lala-Tulpan Mosque in Ufa, the Sheikh Zayed Mosque in Abu Dhabi, the Al-Masjid an-Nabawi Mosque in Medina and the Kul-Sharif Mosque in Kazan.

The psychological block of questions is designed in such a way that the child understands which answer will be socially approved, Alexey Firsov, director of the Center for Social Design “Platform”, explained to Kommersant.

“Suppose the developers set the task of determining the conflict potential of a child. It’s strange to expect frankness from children by asking them directly whether they are prone to conflicts or not,” the sociologist is perplexed. He also criticized the block of questions related to knowledge of the historical context: “Strongly expressed religious bias, strange selection of historical events.”

The expert is confident that adaptive ability is revealed not through psychological texts and knowledge of historical facts or religious symbols, but through an assessment of how organically the child is included in the cultural context, is ready to be open to a new society, to see its key behavioral codes.

“I believe that behind the test questions where we talk about “Islamic concepts” and where you are asked to recognize a mosque from a photograph, there is a rather naive idea, according to which the children of migrants are Muslims, which means that immersion in the “correct” Islamic context and familiarity with Islamic concepts is for them a path to adaptation. This, of course, is not so,” Evgeniy Varshaver, head of the group for research on migration and ethnicity at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, commented on the test to Kommersant. The expert calls sociocultural adaptation “issues of getting to know the everyday context of Russian cities (standing on the escalator on the right, passing on the left), as well as establishing connections with people without migration experience, preferably with good educational and career trajectories.”

Sociologist and migration specialist from the National Research University Higher School of Economics Ekaterina Demintseva supported the plans of the Ministry of Education, noting that the level of Russian language proficiency should be determined at the “entrance” to school. “Schools do not yet have additional educational programs in the form of Russian as a foreign language courses and adaptation courses for migrant children,” Ms. Demintseva noted. “The question arises: who will teach these courses, how will teachers be paid for the additional hours?” If they are sold on a commercial basis, then it is pointless, because migrants do not have money for additional paid education.”

“The main question is: where will the money come from? — Vsevolod Lukhovitsky, a member of the council of the Teacher trade union, agrees. “We need to plan federal funding for all schools in Russia and calculate how many teachers and classes there are. Most likely, the schools themselves will be required to implement the courses, and the director will be forced to introduce paid education.”

Emilia Gabdullina