A check on the auditors of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District, conducting their audit in the high school resulting in punishing teachers for the report of their student in the Bundestag, will be conducted

Znak, 14.12.2017

By Vitaly Sotnik

Photo by the Yamalo-Nenets Department of the Federal Penal Service: Alexander Gerasimenko, Public Persecutor of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District (in the centre).

One more political party [in addition to the Communist Party] has interfered in the case on the speech of the Yamal-Nenets high school student Nikolai Desyatnichenko in the Bundestag and the subsequent punishment of his teachers at the request of [regional] MP from the Communist Party of Elena Kukushkina. According to the Znak.com correspondent, the day before, Yabloko party Chair Emilia Slabunova sent an appeal (a copy is available) to Alexander Gerasimenko, Public Prosecutor of Yamalo-Nents Authonomous District, demanding to verify the validity of the check conducted at the Novy Urengoy high school and disciplinary sanctions against the teachers of the schoolboy 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”]. Punishment of teachers is unlawful, and the check itself results from exceeding the official powers of the Education Department of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District, the party believes.

According to Slabunova, the law (Federal Laws Nos 273-FZ and 294-FZ) envisages that 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 stresses.

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, Yabloko points out. 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,” runs the appeal by Emilia Slabunova.

Source: https://www.znak.com/2017-12-14/v_yanao_proveryat_revizorov_gimnazii_gde_uchiteley_nakazali_za_doklad_shkolnika_v_bundestage