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Parents of Finnish schoolchildren ask to keep Russian language teaching

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Parents of Finnish schoolchildren ask to keep Russian language teaching


22.09.2020

Photo credit: Jari Kovalainen / Yle

Teaching Russian as a mother tongue and other languages ​​in some regions of Finland may be reduced in order to save money. In the municipality of Jyväskylä, the issue of eliminating the teaching of the mother tongue for children of foreign origin is being decided. The Russian community is sending requests to the authorities to preserve the teaching of the Russian language, Yle.fi reports.

If the local authorities approve the reduction, about 100 schoolchildren from Russian families will be deprived of the opportunity to attend Russian language classes in the next academic year. Parents of schoolchildren sent an appeal to the city government with a request not to allow the elimination of lessons, the document was signed by about 130 people.

According to the mother of the schoolgirl Kira Mirutenko, her 8-year-old daughter is currently attending two Russian language classes a week. Despite the insufficiency of such a volume of study hours, Kira Mirutenko admits that such classes are a huge support for Russian-speaking children. As a parent, she is pleased with the quality of teaching Russian, as well as the fact that the school not only teaches the Russian language, but also encourages independent education. In addition to standard lessons, classes are held with the participation of representatives of Russian-speaking organizations.

Representatives of the municipality said that there were no funds for the implementation of all programs that existed earlier. The proposal to eliminate the teaching of native language lessons in 24 languages ​​was included in the list of other initiatives aimed at reducing costs. There are still several stages of discussion before a decision is made.

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