Children of some migrants in Russia may be exempted from language exam

A new draft law has been submitted to the State Duma of Russia. It proposes exempting children of foreign citizens whose native language is Russian from taking the mandatory Russian language test conducted before school enrollment. The document was published in the State Duma’s electronic database.

The draft law was authored by Communist Party deputies Mikhail Matveev, Oleg Mikhailov, and Sergey Obukhov.

’’The mandatory testing of foreign citizens’ children, whose native language is Russian and who are culturally close to Russia, including returning compatriots, to determine their knowledge of the Russian language has no practical meaning,’’ the draft law states.

According to the draft law, the procedure for exempting children from the Russian language test will be determined by the Russian Ministry of Education.

Starting from April 1, 2025, it was established that children of foreign citizens must take a Russian language exam before entering school. Over the past five months, 23,600 applications have been submitted, 8,000 children have taken the exam, and only half of them passed successfully.

It is worth noting that earlier reports indicated that in the third quarter of this year (July, August, and September), more than 35 percent of foreign citizens in Russia failed the Russian language exam on their first attempt.