Honor of speech: migrant children will not be admitted to schools without knowledge of Russian language

The State Duma has passed in the second and third readings a bill which prohibits the admission to schools of migrant children who do not know Russian. This has now become a problem for many districts of various cities where workers from other countries live with their families: children of foreign citizens often simply cannot master the educational program due to their lack of knowledge of the language and have great difficulty in communicating with their peers and teachers. "Izvestia talked to experts about whether the bill contradicts the Constitution, whether it will help solve the problems of Russian schools, and what to do with the children of migrants who will not be able to study.

Why migrant children should be banned from school

At its plenary session on December 11, the State Duma passed in the second and third readings a bill banning the enrollment in schools of migrant children who do not speak Russian. Its authors are the leaders of parliamentary factions, the Duma speaker, his deputies, etc.

According to the adopted law, foreign citizens will be accepted for training in basic general education programs on condition of presenting a document confirming the legality of their stay on the territory of the Russian Federation. At the same time, at the time of admission to school it will be necessary to successfully pass a test for knowledge of the Russian language, without which the child will not be allowed to master the educational program.

The Ministry of Education will determine the procedure for testing children of foreign citizens for knowledge of the language. The requirements for knowledge of the Russian language will also be prescribed there. Methodological support for the testing and the development of diagnostic materials for the test are the responsibility of the Federal Service for Supervision of Education and Science.

How many children of migrants study in Russia

Monitoring data of the Ministry of Education, conducted in October 2024, showed that at the beginning of the 2024/2025 school year in Russian schools studied about 209 thousand children of foreign citizens, reported "Izvestia" in the ministry. Most of all such students are in the Moscow region (32,357 people), Moscow (25,373) and St. Petersburg (21,212). There are also many of them in the Sverdlovsk, Novosibirsk, Kaluga and Leningrad regions. 19.9% of all migrant children receive preschool education, 39.2% study in primary grades, 37.7% receive basic general education and only 3.2% receive basic secondary education. The Ministry emphasized the importance of their integration into Russian society.

Marianna Shevchenko, Development Director of the National Parents Association, noted that migrant children who come to schools without knowledge of the Russian language is a very serious problem, which has been voiced more than once at federal platforms with the participation of the Russian President.

- "The educational process is seriously disrupted and slowed down when a child does not know the language in principle, " she told Izvestia. - Teachers cannot but react to this: they are forced to restructure the current course of the educational process, knowingly reducing the educational pace. And this inevitably affects the quality of education. That is why the case has taken on such a scale.

She called the initiative very timely, understandable and supported by "the absolute majority of participants in the educational process, including children".

Alexei Tishchenko, a leading researcher at the Center for the Economics of Continuing Education (CENO) of the Presidential Academy, emphasizes that now schools are obliged to accept all children, including foreigners, regardless of their level of Russian language skills. Moreover, the problem is aggravated by the "extremely uneven settlement of migrants across territories.

Dmitry Kazakov, chairman of the trade union "Teacher", also emphasizes that one cannot deny this problem, which creates difficulties for the educational process as a whole. However, in his opinion, this only means that it is necessary to create conditions for such children.

- "If a child with poor language skills appears in a class, heneeds support in the form of special conditions, " he told Izvestia. - After all, this child will not need special help for a long time: children quickly learn the language, the child will be able to adapt and continue normal education.

Doesn't it contradict the Constitution

Irina Abankina, a professor at the Institute of Education of the National Research University Higher School of Economics, emphasizes that she does not support educational initiatives that limit the possibility of receiving generally available free education in Russia, especially for "families who are here legally."

-If we are talking about a serious labor shortage in the country and we want people coming to Russia to stay here and fit into our norms of life and work, then their children should be given the right to general education on the same basis as Russian citizens," she believes.

Dmitri Kazakov believes that denying migrant children education on the grounds of not knowing the language will only lead to the fact that they "will be further marginalized": they will not integrate into Russian society, will not receive an education, may join the ranks of "asocial elements" and "fall under the influence of different ideologies" . Boris Ilyukhin, a senior researcher at the Center for the Economics of Continuing Education at the Presidential Academy, says the same thing: children left without education have a very high risk of marginalization and involvement in illegal activities.

Article 43 of the Constitution states that everyone has the right to education. However, Mikhail Avdeenko, deputy chairman of the All-Russian Trade Union of Education, believes that it is not violated by the bill, because a person who does not know Russian simply cannot realize the constitutional right to education.

- Of course, any idea can be twisted, and much will depend on how the law will be detailed in the by-laws of the Ministry of Education and Rosobrnadzor. Only after they appear will it be possible to assess whether human rights are violated or not," he told Izvestia.

What to do with the children of migrants

Alexei Tishchenko also believes that it is important to provide language training for migrant children for school, which could be considered as a component of general education.

- Russia guarantees education in Russian, as well as the choice of the language of education and upbringing within the limits of opportunities provided by the education system, and it is advisable to take these opportunities into account in the draft law," he said.

Boris Ilyukhin believes that it is necessary to provide for special measures to teach the language to children who do not currently know it. Dmitry Kazakov suggests providing tutor support for such children. And Irina Abankina notes that there are already many opportunities to help children master the Russian language through additional education programs and special adaptation programs. They can be implemented by the school itself.

- We even have such obligations in the law "On Education": if students have difficulties in social adaptation and in mastering the educational program, they have the right to count on psychological, pedagogical and methodical assistance, - said Irina Abankina.

According to her, the school may form classes with advanced study of the Russian language in order to facilitate the adaptation of children. Additional education organizations offer their programs for learning Russian language, literature and culture, there are also many online programs.

The Ministry of Education informed Izvestia that from 2023 schools have the right to conduct diagnostics of students on the level of proficiency in Russian language to determine the need for additional courses. And if necessary, the curriculum may provide for additional hours or courses to study Russian language as part of extracurricular activities or additional education.

However, the explanatory note to the bill says that in 2024 not all children of foreign citizens have passed such diagnostics.

The Ministry of Education adds that is now based at the M. M. Bashkir State Pedagogical University. Akmulla University is already developing educational and methodological complexes for extracurricular activities for language adaptation of children who have little or no command of the Russian language.

- These are "Express preparation for studying in a Russian school from scratch", "Learning the Russian language: an educational and methodical complex for extracurricular activities in grades 1-4", as well as "Language support for students in grades 5-9 with poor command of the Russian language: organization of extracurricular activities", which are designed for teachers working with migrant children," the ministry explained to Izvestia.

Alexei Tishchenko suggests creating a system of language preparation for school for migrant children, which could be similar to preparatory departments for foreign students before studying in Russian universities. He noted that some preparatory faculties for foreign students have existed in the country for more than 60 years and have proven themselves.

Irina Abankina adds that Russian language learning programs should be extended to those republics from where migrants often come to Russia. This, by the way, is already being done. At the Yugra Economic Forum in Khanty-Mansiysk on November 18, they talked about Russian schools in Tajikistan - there are now five of them, and they are already very popular. Secretary General of the Assembly of Peoples of Eurasia and Africa Andrei Belianinov mentioned one of them - the Russian-Tajik school named after Gagarin in the city of Dushanbe. Gagarin Russian-Tajik School in the city of Dushanbe, where almost 1,500 children study. According to him, this school has a planetarium, two swimming pools and in general all conditions for the quality development of children.

-We are not just talking about popularization of the Russian language and culture, we are talking about the future qualified workforce for Russia, which is really lacking now," said Andrei Belianinov.