Scientists demand preserving training in national languages in KBR schools

Pupils of a number of schools in the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR) are forced to write applications about the transfer of teaching national languages to the voluntary basis. If the society fails to resist the authorities, national languages will be lost, a historian Aslanbek Mirzoev has stated.

In late 2017, the administration of a school in Nalchik gave applications to be signed by pupils of the 10th-11th forms on their voluntary refusal of native languages and literature in favour of additional lessons of the Russian language. This is stated in the appeal of the KBR's Human Rights Centre (HRC) to the head of the republic Yuri Kokov.

In the opinion of Zaurbek Kozhev, a candidate of historical sciences, in the issue of studying national languages, KBR authorities follow the orders of federal authorities.

"This is an ordinary policy in large states. Authorities apply a utilitarian approach – one country, one language, one civil nation," he has explained.

Refusal to teach national languages is also associated with the budget cuts, said Fatima Kharaeva, the Rector of the North-Caucasian Management Institute.

Education in national languages should be fully restored; and modern training technologies should be used, Indira Guzeeva, an activist of the "Republic – Common Cause" movement, believes.

In her opinion, the national language allows people to preserve their ethno-cultural roots, thanks to which "the multinational Russia can be prosperous."