with the patriotic education program, the school must get in tune with the power

Since the beginning of the school year, images of Russian students undergoing military training or dismantling assault rifles in classrooms appear regularly on television or on social networks. The school must get in tune with a country at war with Ukraine announced, at the start of the school year, the Minister of National Education, Sergei Kravtsov. “It can be said that our schools, colleges and universities are now on the front line. Teachers must fight against fakes and provocative hoaxes, fight against ideological aggression against our country and our children, and protect them from lies and misinformation”, said the Minister. Thus, the discourse of power, its rewriting of history and the special military operation made their very official entry into school this year in Russia.

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These orientations took the form of a new lesson every Monday morning in all Russian schools, “Разговоры о важном”. Literally, talking about important things: about the homeland, its heroes, artists, scientists, cosmonauts, but also soldiers explains Alexandra, a teacher who admits not always following the program. “It should be emphasized that the Russian soldier is a liberating warrior who for centuries has saved humanity from the hands of dictators and aggressors who aspire to world domination”: here is a quote taken from the programs of the 5th and 7th grade classes, says the teacher. I haven’t really read all that, I just get a little nauseous when I read it, I don’t like it.”

The return of a military formation that disappeared after the Soviet Union

While some teachers and students adapt well to these new teachings, for others the school has become an ordeal, as for the son of Nelia, who is 15 years old and no longer supports the propaganda in the programs. “He often comes home outraged because they say Ukraine is a country that shouldn’t exist, testifies this mother. I tell him “you can say whatever you want but please don’t say anything over there!”

“Everyone knows the story of this girl who made an anti-war cartoon at school and her father got two years in prison.”

Nelia, mother

at franceinfo

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After a few months of new programs, some families wonder if they should leave their children in school. AT these courses of patriotism came to be added a military training dispensed in college or high school, which had disappeared with the fall of the Soviet Union.