Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- On 16 March 2023, the twentieth meeting of the Youth Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of the member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States was held. 

The main topic of the agenda was the discussion of methods for preserving and developing the Russian language as the language of interethnic communication for young people in the CIS countries. Representatives of each youth parliamentary delegation of the Commonwealth states participating in the meeting made presentations on the main topic of the meeting. This was reported by the press service of the CIS Executive Committee.

The meeting was opened by the Coordinator of the Youth Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of the CIS Member States, member of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia on State and Legal Affairs Lilit Minasyan, who announced the agenda, introduced the participants of the meeting and gave the floor to the speakers.

Member of the Committee of the Milli Majlis of the Republic of Azerbaijan on Agrarian Policy, member of the Committee of the Milli Majlis of the Republic of Azerbaijan on Regional Issues Emin Hajiyev presented the forms of cooperation between the countries, in particular in social spheres. Since 2010, the Baku International Humanitarian Forum has been held, which brings together prominent representatives of the political, scientific and cultural elite of the world community. Forums of youth initiatives are held in Baku on a traditional basis. There are about 340 schools in the Republic of Azerbaijan, where more than 140,000 children study in Russian, and more than 15,000 citizens study at the Russian language departments in Azerbaijani universities.

“These and other major projects are the result of interstate cooperation and an indicator of a high degree of mutual understanding between the leaders of our states,” the representative of the Republic of Azerbaijan emphasized.

Member of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia for Foreign Relations Lena Nazaryan spoke about the current state of teaching the Russian language in Armenia. She noted that the state education system in Armenia is monolingual. Children study in Armenian, but Russian is taught from the second grade. Russian is also studied in all state educational institutions of the Republic of Armenia.

“In order to improve the quality of teaching the Russian language, Russian language teachers are trained annually. Since last year, they can participate in voluntary certification and as a result receive additional monthly payment. The Armenian government supports Russian language specialists and encourages their work with financial support,” added Lena Nazaryan.

Among the difficulties, the representative of Armenia pointed out the lack of Russian language specialists, especially in the regions.

The member of the Standing Committee of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus on economic policy Svetlana Gorval spoke about the high demand for the Russian language. In accordance with the republican referendum of 1995 and the law "On Languages in the Republic of Belarus", the Russian language, along with the Belarusian language, received state status. One of the subjects for which testing is carried out for admission to universities is the choice of Russian or Belarusian. There is a trend towards an increase in the number of school graduates who choose Russian for testing. The vast majority of libraries, clubs, museums and theaters use the Russian language, and it also prevails in the Belarusian media.

The results of the 2019 census showed that out of 9.4 million inhabitants of Belarus, 54.1% called the Belarusian language their native language, 42.3% Russian. As for the language used in everyday life, in the whole country, Russian was chosen by 71.4%, Belarusian 26.0%.

“Freedom of choice between Belarusian and Russian takes into account the public language situation and the desire of the population. This preserves the historical friendship between Belarus and Russia, lays the foundation for good diplomatic relations between the two countries and cooperation in various fields, which stimulates the development of society and the country,” Svetlana Gorval emphasized.

Dilovar Davlatzoda, head of the legal department of the Office of the Majlisi milli of the Majlisi Oli of the Republic of Tajikistan, spoke to the meeting participants about the promotion of the Russian language in the Republic of Tajikistan. Every year, refresher courses are held for teachers of the Russian language from all regions, cities and districts of the republic. Russian centers of the Russkiy Mir Foundation are successfully operating in the country's leading universities. The role of the Russian language in the educational system has increased significantly.

“Today there are 69 schools with Russian as the language of instruction in the country, where about 47,000 students study. There are also more than 259 mixed Tajik-Russian schools with about 70,000 pupils. At the same time, in most higher educational institutions of the Republic of Tajikistan there are groups with the Russian language of instruction,” the representative of Tajikistan informed.

Dilovar Davlatzoda added that in 2021 and September 2022, 50 Russian language teachers were sent from Russia to Tajikistan to work in local schools. Also, in 2022, in the five most populous cities of Tajikistan, the Russian Federation built five new schools, education in which is conducted entirely in Russian.

From the Russian Federation, members of the Committee of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation on constitutional legislation and state building, Senator of the Russian Federation Nikolai Vladimirov and Deputy Chairman of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Boris Chernyshov spoke.

In his report on the methods of preserving and developing the Russian language, Nikolai Vladimirov noted the importance of constant work for the full-fledged revival of interest in the Russian language among young people. It is necessary to develop new and improve existing programs that encourage the study of the Russian language abroad. According to him, it is necessary to think about creating a targeted program of methodological assistance to teachers in Russian studies, to look for and find new forms of their organizational and financial support. Important areas are the development of interactive education, the provision of effective assistance to foreign Russian-language media resources. He also proposed to create a system of grants for particularly successful, increased scholarships for students of literature.

Boris Chernyshov, in an address to young parliamentarians, noted that a large number of public opinion leaders and bloggers from the Commonwealth countries create their content for young people in Russian. A considerable number of fairy tales and cartoons in Russian have become known and won the love of children and their parents around the world.

Member of the Youth Parliament under the Senate of the Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan, teacher of the Tashkent State Law University Laylo Aslonova, speaking online, said that Uzbek students have the opportunity to study in the best educational institutions in Russia. The number of grants provided for Uzbekistan is steadily increasing, teachers from Russia come to teach Uzbek students the Russian language using the latest technologies. Today, 15 branches of Russian higher educational institutions operate in Uzbekistan, 12 of them have been opened over the past four years. The Russian Educational Center, opened in 2015 on the basis of Samarkand State University, operates. In total, more than 6,000 students study in these branches and 260 teachers work.

Under the auspices of the Year of the Russian Language as a Language of Interethnic Communication in the CIS, it was decided to hold an International Youth Translation Competition. Elena Erakina, Chairman of the Expert Council on Interstate Affairs of the Youth Parliament under the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, introduced the provisions of the competition for young legislators.

Young parliamentarians decided to contribute to the project "Electronic Library" Youth of the Commonwealth "- a unified database of information materials on work with youth in the states of the region, which was presented by the head of the electronic library "Youth of the Commonwealth" of the Institute of Youth Policy and International Relations of the RTU MIREA - the base organization of the CIS member states for work with youth Artem Turenko.

The meeting raised the issue of developing a glossary of terms and concepts on youth policy in the CIS countries. He spoke in more detail about it. O. Director of the Institute of Youth Policy and International Relations RTU MIREA - the base organization of the CIS member states for work with youth Dmitry Bunkin.

After the event, the young parliamentarians visited the museum-estate of G. R. Derzhavin and Russian literature of his time in St. Petersburg.