The Ministry of Education is developing educational programs for teaching children of migrants

Last week, Chairman of the Presidential Council for Human Rights (HRC) Valery Fadeev said that the Ministry of Education is developing educational programs to educate children with “migration” experience. According to him, from 50% to 75% of such students do not know Russian well or do not know it at all, which prevents them from receiving a full-fledged secondary education. Kommersant asked experts whether this initiative is justified. Sociologist, expert on migration Ekaterina Demintseva believes that integration programs should complement the child’s education in parallel with the usual daily learning in the classroom. And the head of the trade union “Teacher” Vsevolod Lukhovitsky points to an additional burden for school teachers.

Valery Fadeev said officials plan to create school programs for learning Russian as a foreign language, as well as special courses to train teachers who work with foreign children and children who have recently become citizens of the Russian Federation. Innovations are necessary, since most of the children with a “migration history” either do not speak Russian well or do not speak Russian at all, the head of the HRC said. According to him, in some schools in Moscow and St. Petersburg there are up to 20% of such students. Because of the language problems of such children, the general educational process is hindered, said Valery Fadeev, and the parents of Russian-speaking children decide to change the educational institution.

Valery Fadeev also believes that officials should consider introducing quotas for migrant students in schools. However, he also admitted that there are no real statistics on children with “migration” experience now. Officials do not know either the exact number of foreign children who actually attend secondary general education institutions, or the number of children who have already received Russian citizenship but do not speak Russian well. “There are more or less accurate statistics on the children of migrants who do not have Russian citizenship. But many have already received citizenship, children from these families do not speak Russian to about the same extent. At the same time, they are no longer taken into account, although they are also not adapted, not integrated. And it is not known how many of them, because such records are not kept – they are already Russian citizens, ”explained Mr. Fadeev. Kommersant asked for a comment from the Ministry of Education, but has not received it yet.

Ekaterina Demintseva, a sociologist and migration specialist from the National Research University Higher School of Economics, supports the initiative to create integration programs. She confirms the words of Valery Fadeev about the difficulties with statistical accounting: “We really cannot count how many migrant children. Because most of the migrants bring their children to the country after receiving Russian citizenship.” But, according to Ms. Demintseva, there is no need for such statistics, just as there is no need to create quotas. “There are not so many children who do not speak Russian at all. And just counting how many children of a different ethnic origin or children whose parents had a different citizenship is meaningless. Because those children who come to school may have completely different skills. Some will speak Russian perfectly because they went to a local kindergarten, others will speak Russian poorly, because they were just brought to Russia,” the sociologist notes.

Ms. Demintseva insists that integration programs should complement the child’s education in parallel with the usual daily learning in the classroom. And instead of dividing schoolchildren into local and with a “migration history”, Ekaterina Demintseva proposes to introduce testing for knowledge of the Russian language. “There is an unspoken agreement that in different areas, almost all children with a “migration history” are sent to specific schools. And usually the department of this or that city is aware of these schools,” the expert says. “Today, at the stage of admission to the school, some teachers themselves conduct language tests and determine who needs help with learning the language. This should be done precisely through test materials, which should be prepared by the state.”

Vsevolod Lukhovitsky, chairman of the Teacher interregional trade union, said that integration programs for migrant children were developed back in the 1990s. However, these initiatives were soon curtailed, despite the fact that the number of children with a “migration history” only grew. At the same time, Mr. Lukhovitsky doubts that the Ministry of Education will be able to prepare high-quality integration textbooks in a short time. The expert also believes that it is an unrealistic plan to oblige every Russian language teacher to take advanced training courses to work with migrant children. “Teachers, and especially school directors, treat any new course, no matter how wonderful, as an additional unpaid burden,” says the chairman of the trade union. “If teachers are sent to courses, someone at this time should conduct classes instead of him. This means that we need to look for additional funds, additional teachers. It seems to me that it is impossible to expect that online courses will be effective. And forcing teachers to take courses in the afternoon is also not very reasonable.”

Mr. Lukhovitsky proposes transferring training in working with migrant children to the level of pedagogical universities: “We need to start teaching this in universities: allocate budget funding with an additional payment to each teacher who works with migrant children. But officials don’t say a word about this, because we have regional, not federal funding for pedagogical universities.”

Emilia Gabdullina