Press Release, 17.11.2022

Photo by Yevgeny Pereverzev, Kommersant

Nikolai Rybakov, Chairman of the Yabloko party, sent a corresponding letter to Russian Minister of Education Sergei Kravtsov. Rybakov proposed to include additional hours for learning foreign languages ​​in the educational standards instead of elementary military training.

“School is a space for education, and there is no place for ideology and war propaganda. Instead of helping to reveal the personality of a teenager, giving him/her the opportunity to find his/her own way in life, the initial course of Elementary Military Training turns the teenager into a cog in the military mechanism. The contact of a child with a weapon and the inculcation of a cult of force, the idea of ​​the admissibility of resolving conflicts by military means lead to an increase in aggression in society and, as a result, an increase in the number of violent crimes,” Rybakov emphasised.

He noted that the introduction of such courses at schools is contrary to the interests of students and leads the Russian school to a dangerous militarisation.

Earlier, the Ministry of Education announced that from the next academic year, a course in Elementary Military Training will be introduced in Russian schools, the curriculum includes march drill, weapons, the basics of shooting, the functioning and use of hand grenades, actions in modern combined arms combat, etc.

The Education Ministry noted that the course of 335 academic hours will be taught to schoolchildren by former military personnel with combat experience. Yabloko said that such a proposal directly contradicted the current legislation, since only people with a pedagogical education can work at the school.

According to Yabloko, the course of the Basic Life Safety in Russian schools is a more practical and broader alternative to the Elementary Military Training, since military training is highly specialised knowledge that most graduates will not need. While the Basic Life Safety prepares students for various emergencies they may face in real life.

At the same time, if there really is a need to increase the teaching load on schoolchildren, the head of Yabloko proposed abandoning the plans to introduce a course of Elementary Military Training at school and include additional hours for studying subjects chosen by schoolchildren themselves, for example, foreign languages.

In addition, Nikolai Rybakov proposed to consider the possibility of holding free foreign language courses for Russian school teachers with subsequent financial incentives for teachers who successfully completed the courses.

“The school curriculum is a fundamental choice for the future of the country: are we preparing our children for war or cooperation and competition in an open and free world? I believe that education, science and culture, which have always been the pride of our country, should become Russia’s main allies,” Nikolai Rybakov added.

NIKOLAI RYBAKOV

is Chairman of the Yabloko party, member of the Federal Political Committee of the party, member of the Yabloko Bureau.

Head of the Yabloko Electoral Head-Quarters