The Human Rights Council supported the launch of pre-school Russian language courses for migrant children

The Human Rights Council (HRC) supports the launch of free pre-school courses for migrant children. This was announced by the head of the council Valery Fadeev.

“It is possible that changes will be made to the legislation so that the law requires compulsory free Russian language education before the child enters school. And we strongly support and approve this decision,” he said (quote by RIA Novosti).

According to Fadeev, from half to three-quarters of “children with a migration history,” including those who have received citizenship, know Russian poorly or do not know it at all. The Ministry of Education is already working on the creation of special courses to solve this problem, he said.

The position of the HRC, recalled the head of the council, is that it is impossible to admit children to school without knowledge of the Russian language. First, they must learn the language to such an extent that they can master the school curriculum. “This is not a violation of the rights of children, on the contrary, this is an attempt to fulfill the right of any child to go to school, to receive a secondary education,” Fadeev explained.

The day before, June 6, Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev drew attention to the lack of a mechanism for teaching migrant children the Russian language in the country. He urged the Russian authorities to take measures to help children from other countries “catch up” with other students in terms of knowledge of the Russian language.

In his opinion, the level of knowledge of the language of migrant children should be sufficient to master the school curriculum. Medvedev noted that in some schools the proportion of children who do not speak Russian may be 10-20%.

In August 2022 Fadeev offeredso that the children of migrants without knowledge of the language take “annual preparatory courses in the Russian language”. In his opinion, children who do not know the language should not be enrolled in schools, “otherwise the education of the entire class will be disrupted.”

At the same time, Russian President Vladimir Putin supported the idea of ​​creating adaptation centers for migrants in Russia. According to him, people who move to Russia should be adapted, as well as know the culture, language and Russian legislation.

In October 2021 head of state declaredthat migrants from the CIS countries should at least know Russian in order to adapt to life in Russia. Putin noted that visitors also need to understand “what Russia is”, know its culture and history in order to integrate into society, “not only earn money, but also live a full life” in the country.