The Russian community in France is one of the biggest scandals of recent years. In the school at the Embassy of the Russian Federation for almost three decades there was the internally-correspondence form of learning that allowed kids from families well integrated into France, to the French and Russian diplomas. But this year, on the eve of the last call, the school suddenly announced the elimination of such classes. Moreover, the Russian foreign Ministry is now insisting that such training was in fact illegal. Why now parents are trying to defend their children a right to study in the school at the Embassy of the Russian language, Russian literature, Russian history and other subjects, understood columnist of “Kommersant” Galina Dudina.”It is very valuable for families who want to preserve the Russian identity of children””I wanted Nina to this school record, the Embassy, on Wednesdays after lunch. And I will be very sad if it closed,”— said “Kommersant” Lara Kauta, the great-granddaughter of a Russian officer kexholmsky regiment. He emigrated to France after the 1917 revolution. In France were born my grandmother and mother Lara, and she is, but in Russian, all speak without an accent. The fate of this family magazine “the Power” wrote back in 2013, since then Lara had to finish my PhD in Moscow and together with her husband to work in Russia and return to Paris. The eldest daughter Nina, a five-year French by nationality and by birth, was going to give to the French school. And on Wednesdays, when French students don’t have classes or a short day, have to walk to classes in the school at the Embassy of the Russian Federation. But now these lessons Nina don’t seem to get.Photo: Olga Allenova, businessman”I was mainly in Russian (a parish.— “B”) school at the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, the Embassy went to school for only one year, but the year is very much learned, and impressions I have of the Embassy school were very bright, says Lara.— There is a higher level and Russian children from Russian and French with Russian roots. And unique thanks to the ambassadorial school children growing up in France, can get acquainted and familiar with Russian mentality and Russian character, so much so that they in Russia will feel at home. It is very valuable for families who want to preserve the Russian identity of children born and growing up in France.”But the school at the Embassy, after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the growth of emigration opened for children of compatriots abroad, not only for the Soviet seconded, suddenly became neutral territory, which is trust in both parties. Since the early 1990s to learn it had hundreds of disciples. Gradually the school began to record the children of mixed marriages or of families who emigrated long ago.Some of the children studying full-time as in any other school of the Russian Federation. It first only the children of diplomats and employees sent to France by other Federal bodies of the Russian Federation.Someone who lives far away from school or not in Paris chose the correspondence Department. Such students were listed in school, but came to the consultation before the semester certifications.According to the Russian legislation, there is also education in the family. Under this option, responsibility for the quality of education does not lie with the school and the parents: they set and the training schedule, and program. In school, students come only to pass exams.Meanwhile great popularity, especially among the mixed Russian-French or have moved to France families used internally-correspondence form (OZF). It has been designed specifically for those wishing to combine French and Russian education: once a week, every Wednesday, the children had three or four lessons, the main subjects alternated. Part of the program children are taught at home. And how confident parents, at the end was catching up to the traditional program of Russian secondary school. With a load of homework and did not all, but who wish to enroll in part-time form every year was more than the seats. Did the competition.And full-time, and OZF to submerge into the Russian-speaking environment, modern not books Russian language, to improve the knowledge, to get acquainted with the history of Russia and Russian-speaking peers. Finally, it is the only school in Paris where you can get an official Russian certificate of secondary education. So, to think about how this made Lara Kauta, on admission to Russian universities.”We simply do not hear”the Thematic thread about the Russian school there are and the most popular Russian-speaking forum for living in France. Last year the parents discussed the problems of this order: “the Lake, mushroom, puppy, the sun. Find in each row the extra word. Explain your choice.”Then began to complain: the school has more bureaucracy, any document that was not previously required, please certify by a sworn translator, deteriorated the attitude to the students and parents, especially those who OZF. Some linked a new trend on his appointment as Ambassador in Paris in 2017, the former Deputy foreign Minister Alexei Meshkov. “Those who are older than my daughter, saying earlier all this was not, like our year was the toughest in this regard,” experienced one of the moms.Or you learn the full Russian in school, Russian school children, or learn at home family training, and come to school to take exams.”For (final.— “B”) parent meeting the teacher announced that tuition fees will be cancelled and immediately raised a bad feeling, which, as usual, did not disappoint, writes father-validating.— ESLand I understand correctly, the decision to abolish the part-time accepted at the level of the Embassy because of its unprofitability. The most optimal form of education abolished, the level of work with compatriots has reached “new heights””.The forum started. In person, write, “too, if you are the ambassadors” — only family learning. “The baby cried”. “My friend filed in class 1 zaochku. And today she received an email where her children zaochke denied for the reason that they are not citizens of the Russian Federation, they have Swiss and Ukrainian citizenship. The Secretary explained that learning in school can now only citizens of the Russian Federation. And if I’m not mistaken, education for them was free. Maybe financially it makes no sense to zaochke and part-time on such terms?”The waiver of fees on OZF she was up to €400 — many parents just explain myself. This summer in force adopted in the fall of the government of the Russian Federation of the amendment to article 88 of the education law, according to which the children can get a “General education in the Russian language on a free basis in the schools of diplomatic missions”. Previously, this right was already children of employees of the Russian missions abroad, and now have children of “other persons, including Russian compatriots living abroad and also foreign nationals, a decision which training is accepted by the head of the relevant diplomatic and consular missions in coordination with the Ministry of foreign Affairs of Russia.””They have so called — “other”,”— says Inga Danikeev, one of the moms United in a Russian school in Paris in natural PTA (the school has also an official parental Committee that “claims to be the sole representative of the children”). Her son Edgar, age 11, his photo is on the school honor roll, along with photos of children of full-time.But in late may, she along with other parents suggested that first “voluntarily” to write the application on dismissal, then transfer to home schooling or for full-time and finally, after several rounds of negotiations on part-time consultation every two weeks instead of the current four lessons each week. “Today we were summoned to the school, offer to pick up the textbooks. I have been calling the parents and saying well we do not deduct? — says Inga — Now the Director claims that OZF should be constructed thus: let the children 70% of the time go to class, get the rest in absentia. But in the morning they are learning in their French schools!” — she explains. “But my child is an a student, then still you can effectively learn from the lessons of once a week? Like him a lot, but we just don’t hear complains Inga Enikeeva.— We ask one thing: to leave everything as it was 28 years. For us this is the only opportunity that our children — bilinguals, bicultural — assimilated and received a Russian education at school, adapted to local culture.”In Paris there are unofficial Russian “gymnasium”, circles and clubs of the Russian language for children and teenagers, but the quality of education in them many parents are not satisfied. They would like to leave the kids in the Embassy school and are outraged by the ultimatum of the requirements that they impose. They believe that their children go legally. They took on OZF under current law, and if the administration decided to change the programme content, the new conditions it was necessary to justify and to inform, and not to put parents and children before the fact.In this PTA sure is not just a conflict between parents and school management. “After everything happened, I looked at the regulations and local acts six dozen of the 86 schools of the Ministry of foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation abroad, rejecting only the small. Then we talked with parents in other countries and can say that starting in 2018, and is particularly active in 2019, began to write provisions about schools — virtual Charter schools. They began to change and standardize. Schools one by one began to close OZF,” says another mother, Tatyana Bokova. On the website of the Russian school in London is really bold: “study — head”. “September 6, 2019, three days before the solemn rulers devoted to the beginning of the academic year, extramural and part-time offices, on the website of the school under the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Japan published papers that reported that now the school fees will be conducted only in intramural form,” confirmed “Kommersant” the mother of one of pupils of initial classes of school at the Russian Embassy in Japan, who asked not to be named. According to her, in a Russian school in Tokyo, of the 331 pupils of the school-188 students studied by correspondence or internally-correspondence: attended consultations every one or two weeks, had access to preparatory material on the school website, was able to take the certification at a school.”Unilaterally in the new school year, the children were outside of school, outside of the educational process, and the Director on all appeals answered: “Go to Russia if you want Russian school”, calling for the eyes of children that are not related to Embassy families, “zazabornuyu,” she says.— But more than half of the children enrolled in schools at missions abroad, is a time students and children of families not related to the embassies of the Russian Federation. This is a big part of the future of the “Russian world” beyond Russia, the future “soft power influence””.”Was asked to lead training courses in compliance with the current normative documents”to the Parents of pupils of Russian school in Paris came to the defense of this “Russian world” and now write letters to MI�� Of the Russian Federation, the Russian Ambassador in Paris, the committees of the State Duma, knocking in the media, are going to write to the President of the Russian Federation. With the participation of the children took the promotional video for “the right to go to school at the Embassy of Russia in France on Wednesdays,” and a petition on change.org in defense of the disciples OZF in Paris was signed while 867 people. It’s little more than the students in the school. According to the parents, now OZF study 170 children, the correspondence is 59, and is in the amount of more than 60% of students in the school at the Embassy.”In the administration of the school was sent an internal circular from the Ministry of foreign Affairs with recommendations on the elimination of OZF. All the requests of the parent Committee to receive the opportunity to familiarize themselves with this document and with the text of the decision of the school administration was received resolute refusal,”— said in the text of the petition.However, the position of the school and the foreign Ministry seems unmoved. On request “b” to the email address of the school there was no answer, but the Director of the school Irina Shaposhnikova previously explained: “Part-time school actually had no right to be called so. School at the Embassy in France is an institution with advanced study of foreign language, therefore, learning it can only be organized in the first place”. School, emphasizes the Director, not closed: it is possible “to take the children on full-time training or on family formation for 1-9 classes and self-education for grades 10-11”.”In accordance with Russian regulatory framework on part-time basis, the names of disciplines and grouping them by subject area, must be identical to the curriculum for full-time study, and the amount of hours in subjects up to 70% of the volume of hours of full-time— said, in turn, in the official comments of the Embassy.— If you are ready for it, then we will be ready to consider this possibility. We understand that most parents are nevertheless not ready to transfer their children to full-time or part-time form, which is stipulated by the Russian legislation.”The Embassy assure that you understand the sensitivity of the problem and tried to find a compromise solution after three meetings with parents, internal meetings and consultations with Moscow. In response to the question “Kommersant”, whether on OZF requirements number of required classroom hours and why did the translation on a distance-learning course counselling twice a week is not a violation of the regulations, the Embassy explained that was not performed “requirements not only in the number of classroom hours, but in their time” “They have to fit into a regular schedule full-time studies in a particular school, and not be imposed in individual days and hours, adjusting to the schedule of the student”. But the translation of children on a correspondence course, according to the Embassy, a violation is notXia: “When the correspondence form of training, the program runs independently, there is no standard for face-to-face lessons with a teacher. Advice not lessons. Their visit is not mandatory, but voluntary, assessment they have not exhibited”.Also at the Embassy emphasize that the children had previously trained for free, and the money was levied for “reimbursement of actual costs”, including cleaning and utilities.The Russian foreign Ministry to the question “Kommersant” about the future OZF in schools abroad referred to paragraph 29 of the order of the Ministry of foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation No. 21428 “On approval of the procedure of organization and implementation of educational activities in primary and secondary General education programs at diplomatic missions and consular institutions of the Russian Federation” — he was adopted in 2013 and in 2018 has experienced minor edits.According to clause 29, training and education “carried out by foreign institutions of the Ministry of foreign Affairs of Russia on the state language of the Russian Federation (Russian language)”. In addition, “the training is done in person”, and “combination of different forms of education and forms of education is allowed at the request of parents (legal representatives) and decision of the head of the overseas missions of MFA of Russia”.”In this regard, the legal representatives of individual learners were asked to lead training courses in compliance with existing regulations and to continue education internally or in the form of family education with the passing of the state final attestation, the submission of the OGE and the exam as external students are being prepared”,— explained “Kommersant” in the Ministry of foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.”Anyway, if today, we cut off so these people, their future is only associated with France. For Russia, this is a big omission. For us, it was for decades an investment in the future— sums up one of the interlocutors “Kommersant”, is intimately familiar with the problems of the Russian Diaspora in France.— For many decades we were trying to achieve including national reconciliation that was not white and red. And now we actually force them to choose, with us or against us. This trend, which brings us back to the iron curtain and the days that have already passed.”
