The number of hours spent studying the Chechen language in schools has been reduced fivefold

Instead of five hours a week allocated in schools for studying the Chechen language and literature, starting this year only one hour will be allocated, the Chechen Minister of Education announced, explaining that this hour will be extracurricular.

As "Kavkazsky Uzel" wrote, in November 2022, Ramzan Kadyrov stated that the Chechen language is included in the group of endangered languages, and this is a "great tragedy" that the republic's authorities cannot put up with. In Chechen families, the main language of communication should be the native language, he said. Residents of the republic speak Chechen fluently, and Kadyrov's demands are excessive, social network users pointed out at the time. In the list of state languages of Chechnya, Russian has been moved to second place after Chechen, according to the new version of the law "On Languages in the Chechen Republic" signed by Ramzan Kadyrov.

The redistribution of hours, including for studying the Chechen language, was introduced at the federal level, said the head of the Chechen Ministry of Education, Magomed Daayev. "There is a so-called reduction in the subject load. In general, the total number of hours for a particular subject is also changing," Grozny Inform quoted him as saying.

Daayev explained that there is an instruction according to which tests on certain subjects should not take up more than ten percent of the total annual hour volume. "We in the republic are trying to maintain a five-day study schedule. In previous years, as part of the instructions of the Head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov, we had five hours of Chechen language and literature per week. Now it is one hour," the minister added. He also specified that "this hour will be transferred to extracurricular activities, where children will study the Chechen language in a slightly different format."

At the same time, Daayev did not name the number of hours in his Telegram channel, indicating only that "special attention is paid to the study of the native language, the redistribution of hours in the curriculum."

A reader of the "Caucasian Knot" commented on the post about the change in the number of hours allocated in Chechnya for the study of the Chechen language.

"To say that teachers and parents of students are shocked means to say nothing. My classmate from the university, who has been engaged in teaching for more than 15 years, called this decision "a real mockery" and an attempt to "kill" the native language. Indeed, what can 1 hour of studying their native language a week give children? Almost nothing. But, again, the Chechen authorities strictly follow the instructions handed down "from above", and nothing more," - he commented.

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