Halya Coynash
18 months after Russia invaded and annexed Crimea, not one class of the
over 18 thousand children beginning school on Sept 1, will be with instruction
in Ukrainian. Even in traditionally Crimean Tatar schools, students now
study in either Crimean Tatar or Russian, with Russian predominating. The
occupation regime’s education minister Natalya Goncharova claims that this is all determined by parental demand. Parents, and
Crimean Tatar commentators speak of serious pressure on parents. Other
methods are also being applied, including the lack of textbooks for children to
study in Crimean Tatar.
Radio Svoboda’s Crimean Service looked at the situation with Crimean Tatar School No. 42 which had a record
number of children starting school this September. Of the seven
first-grade classes formed, four study in Russian.
The school is 10 years old, and until annexation had only Crimean Tatar
instruction with children attending from beyond Simferopol itself.
The Radio Svoboda correspondent spoke with one mother who is outraged
that her child has been placed in a class with instruction in Russian
language. She says that it was specifically because this is a Crimean
Tatar language school that she brought her child there.
Damning statistics
Emine Avamilevu, Head of the Department for Education in the Crimean
Tatar Language of the Mejlis, or Crimean Tatar representative assembly, compared the situation in Crimean schools before annexation and since.
During the 2013-2014 school year there were: 15 schools teaching in the
Crimean Tatar language; one school with lessons in both Crimean Tatar and
Ukrainian; 20 schools with joint Crimean Tatar and Russian schools; and 27
schools with all three languages (Crimean Tatar, Ukrainian and
Russian).
3.1% of kids were studying with Crimean Tatar language
instruction ; around 7% studied the language as a subject.
Under Russian occupation 96% of students are studying in Russian.
All ‘national’ (Crimean Tatar) schools now teach in both Russian and Crimean
Tatar. There are 15 such schools. Even if a school is
officially Crimean Tatar, the children may well be in a class taught in
Russian.
There are around two thousand children studying with Ukrainian language
instruction (1.2% of the overall number).
With 18 and a half thousand children beginning school this September,
only 24 classes began with lessons in Crimean Tatar, and not one in
Ukrainian.
The reduction in classes with non-Russian instruction is across the age
range, while in the final two grades, according to Russian legislation, school
students have to study in Russian..
Both Emine Avamilevu and parents complain that schools try to stop parents
from applying to have their children taught in their native language. There is anger that according to the law passed by the Crimean Parliament on May 20,
2015, Crimean Tatar language (in theory one of three state languages, together
with Russian and Ukrainian) has been relegated to the status of a
non-compulsory native language. Parents consider it insulting to have to
‘apply’ for their children to study in their native language.
Such pressure was reported already back in May 2014. From a pedagogical point of view, the
system imposed under Russian occupation is also likely to deter many parents
from choosing another language but Russian. If this is the mandatory
language of the last two critical years at school, then children studying
mainly in another language before then would be at a disadvantage.
There is another major factor which is surely deliberate. Crimean
Tatar schools have not been provided with the appropriate textbooks. The
parents of an eighth-grade student told Radio Svoboda that their daughter’s
class had been issued with 7 books: 2 for the teachers, and 5 for 28 kids.
The standard of education must inevitably be lower due to the lack of
textbooks.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his people have constantly pushed
the line that Russia’s occupation of Crimea was to ‘protect’ ethnic Russians
and Russian-speakers. The latter, it was claimed, without any evidence,
were being discriminated against.
While not prohibiting study in Ukrainian or Crimean Tatar, the message
presented is clear: if you care about your children’s education, study in
Russian.
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