Participants of Karachayevsk conference demand compulsory study of native languages

On December 19, the Karachay-Cherkessian State University (KChSU) hosted the conference "Problems of Preservation and Development of Languages of the Peoples of the Karachay-Cherkessian Republic".

National public organizations came together in connection with numerous requests to take measures to secure preservation and study of native languages, stated during the conference Suleiman Botashev, one of the keynote speakers, the deputy head of the Karachay-Cherkessian public organization "Karachay Alan Khalk".

The speaker expressed his dissatisfaction with the fact that no government officials, except Deputy Education Minister Elizaveta Semyonova, had come to the conference. "This is the attitude the officials show towards native languages," Suleiman Botashev added.

Schools are not supplied with mother tongue textbooks, classrooms do not meet modern requirements, and many teachers are poorly prepared, emphasize participants of the conference. They have adopted an appeal to the parliament of the republic with a request to take the legislative initiative and invite the Russian State Duma to repeal the amendments to the Law "On Education in the Russian Federation" adopted in 2018, providing for the voluntary study of native languages.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on December 20, 2019 at 06:01 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.