Voronetskii Petr
Abstract: In the article, the set of issues connected with the legal regulation of the use of the Russian official language and the republics’ official languages in the educational sphere in past and present is regarded. The author analyzes the law in order to learn more about the official language of education on the particular level. Federal Law on the Education in the Russian Federation, Federal State Educational Standards, and the republics’ laws are analyzed. The author concludes that it is possible to obtain general secondary education and higher education with specializations and degrees (which are included in the standards approved prior to the Federal Law on Education in the Russian Federation) exclusively in Russian as official language. Education on other levels can be obtained in both Russian as official language and in official languages of the republics. In addition, the author explores legal aspects of studying official languages as school subjects and indicates that it is necessary to make distinction between “the language of studying” and “the language studied as school subject”. The author underlines that generally the obligation to study republic’s official language in the educational institutions corresponds to the official status of those language. Thus, both republic legislator and educational institutions have a right to envisage its compulsory studying in the frame of particular subjects indicated in the standards of general education. The author insists on the impermissibility of the obligation to learn the republic’s official language based only on one’s ethnic origins. The author criticizes such terms as “the mother-tongue speaker” and “the mother-tongue” due to their uncertainty. Finally, the author foresees the possibility to resolve the issue about either compulsory or voluntary study of the republic’s official language for everyone obtaining general education in spite of one’s ethnic origins.
Keywords: official language of the Russian Federation; republic’s official language; language of education; study of official language; compulsory study of official language.