Press Release, 14.12.2017

Emilia Slabunova, Chair of the Yabloko party and Honored Teacher of Russia, has sent an appeal to the Public Prosecutor of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District Alexander Gerasimenko demanding to examine the lawfulness of the examination conducted in the Novy Urengoy high school and disciplinary actions against the teachers of the student who made a speech in the Bundestag about the German WWII prisoners stating that many of them had been “innocent victims of war who didn’t want to fight”. 

Punishing the teachers is unlawful, and the audit conducted in the high school was exceeding the official powers of the Education Department of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District, Slabonova notes. The audit was conducted on the initiative of Elena Kukushkina, regional MP in the Legislative Assembly of the district from the Communist Party.

On 20 November, Elena Kukushkina, a communist MP of the Legislative Assembly of the district, petitioned the authorities demanding to conduct an audit in the high school in Novy Urengoy. Nikolai Desyatnichenko, whose speech in the Bundestag ignited severe criticism in Russia, is a student of this high school

According to the law (Federal Laws Nos 273-FZ and 294-FZ), the reason for an unscheduled inspection of an educational institution may be violation of the law in getting accreditation, as well as violation of the laws on education. Therefore, the appeal of MP Elena Kukushkina can not serve as a basis for an unscheduled audit, Emilia Slabunova points out.

One of the key principles of state educational policy is the principle of autonomy of educational organisations, academic rights and freedoms of pedagogical workers and students, Yabloko emphasises. According to the law (Federal Law No. 273-FZ), autonomy means independence in the implementation of educational, academic, administrative, financial and economic activities, development and adoption of local regulations in accordance with the federal laws and the charter of the educational organisation. Hence, schools are free to determine the content of education, the choice of educational and methodological support and educational methods.

“The audit was launched by the appeal of MP Elena Kukushkina on the content of the speech of student Nikolai Desyatnichenko,” Emilia Slabunova notes. “This can be interpreted as interference of a representative of the state authority into the educational process, which violates the principle of autonomy of educational organisations, the right of students to freedom of conscience, information, and free expression of their views and beliefs.”

The order of the administration of Novy Urengoy that the high school should provide them reporting on the [educational] trip of the students to Germany is also unlawful, Slabunova stresses. The law obliges educational institutions to report annually to the founder and the public only on the receipt and expenditure of financial and material resources, as well as on the results of a self-audit. The law envisaged no other reports.

“I am asking you to examine the lawfulness of the audit conducted by the Education Department of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District in respect of the high school of Novy Urengoy and the imposed penalties,” Emilia Slabunova writes.