Komi language learned less and less

Experts from the Ministry of Education of the Komi Republic noted that, of the republic’s 96,000 pupils, 1,890 (3 per cent of the total number of pupils) are learning the Komi language as their mother tongue. A total of 37,000 pupils are learning the Komi language as a state language, i.e. on the basis of Russian and at a basic level. These figures were announced at a session of the Komi State Council.

It was noted at the session that, compared with the languages of other ethnic regions of the Russian Federation, the indicators for the study of the Komi language are among the lowest. For example, 10 % of pupils study Udmurt as their mother tongue, 38 % study Buryat, 78 % study Tatar and 79 % study Bashkir.  The highest level of teaching of national languages is in the Chechen Republic, where 100 % of pupils study Chechen as their mother tongue. This is followed by the Republic of Ingushetia, where 95 % of pupils study Ingush.

In recent years, there have been reports from many regions of the Russian Federation regarding problems with the preservation of national languages. For example, in the Republic of Mordovia, the only school where the Shoksha dialect of the Erzya language was taught was closed, whilst in Karelia, the circulation of Karelian- and Finnish-language newspapers was reduced, and lessons in the national language were cut to a minimum of one lesson per week. In Syktyvkar, the capital of the Komi Republic, there were plans to close the only bookshop selling literature in the national language.

At the same time, the leadership of the national regions speak of large sums of money that have been spent on the preservation and promotion of national languages.