A draft law has been presented in the State Duma that proposes to exempt the children of foreign citizens from mandatory testing in the Russian language for school admission if Russian is their native language. This draft law can be found in the electronic database of the Duma at this link.
Deputies from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Mikhail Matveev, Oleg Mikhailov, and Sergey Obukhov, are the initiators of this document.
In the explanatory note to the draft law, it is stated that "the obligation to undergo testing for proficiency in the Russian language for children of foreigners and stateless persons, for whom Russian is the only native language and who are culturally close to Russia, including repatriates, is devoid of practical meaning."
According to the proposal, the Ministry of Education will determine the procedure for exemption from testing in the Russian language.
From April 1, 2025, foreign children will be required to take an exam in the Russian language before entering school. In the first five months, 23,600 applications for enrollment were submitted, but only 8,000 children were allowed to take the exam, and only about half of them successfully passed the testing.
