Paul
Goble
Staunton, June 23 – Parents in rural
areas of Bryansk Oblast, long dismissed as part of the red rust belt and one of
the most traditional and deferential places in the Russian Federation, are now
fighting to save their schools from Moscow’s “optimization” program, something
they say is nothing more than a euphemism for “closing” what are often the main
centers of village life.
Given the dying out of rural Russia
in recent decades, with tens of thousands of villages now ghost towns across
the country, it is no surprise that the government is closing schools where
there are no people left, but its “creeping optimization” has now come to
places where there are still residents – and Russian parents are responding
with outrage and activism.
When schools are closed, they say,
their children often cannot get to the proposed alternative because they don’t
have cars and there are no buses or even roads. One regional suggested these parents “home
school” their children, an impossibility for most who work full time (takiedela.ru/2017/06/polzuchaya-optimizaciya/).
According
to Takiye Dela journalist Anastasiya
Lotaryeva, this is turning the most improbably people into active protesters,
who are taking to the streets, confronting local officials and writing appeals to
Moscow leaders simply because they don’t know what else to do to ensure that
their children get an education and their villages survive.
One
woman Lotaryeva met with pointed out that she “doesn’t’ have a driver’s license
and goes everywhere exclusively by foot. I do not understand how my child will
get to school.” The roads are terrible, there are no buses, and she herself
works two jobs, having lost another one when she allowed her daughter to come
to her workplace to wait after school.
The
regional and local authorities have tried a variety of schemes to force the
closure of schools, the journalist says, seeking to declare their buildings
unsafe and in no case informing the parents in advance of what will happen to
their children after the school is closed.
The authorities have been equally incommunicative with teachers.
The
parents are more active than the teachers, the journalist says, because the
teachers have been told that they will lose their jobs if they complain. But as
one of them noted, she is a parent too and thus should have the right to defend
the interests of her child. That argument has been rejected by the authorities,
Lotaryeva says.
When
the Takiye dela writer attempted to
find out who was behind the closings, officials tried to pass the buck, blaming
others and refusing to take any responsibility. But their comments showed that
they are all part of the problem and that they have no intention of yielding to
parents or teachers, however much the latter try to defend their schools.
The
number of school closings in Bryansk oblast has been massive: In 2013, 38
schools were closed, and in the following tow years, 18 more. A KPRF activist said he and the parents had
tried to block these “optimizations” but without much success – they did save
one school last year -- even when teachers continued to hold classes in schools
that had been closed down.
Those
resisting the school closings have become increasingly Internet savvy, posting
online their appeals to Moscow and pointing out that there is no way for their
children to get to alternative schools: “We have no buses, we have no stops,
our roads are bad, just look at how many crosses there are alongside them.”
And
they add: “We do not agree with the decisions of the authorities, but we also
understand that no one asked us” before they acted against our interests and
those of our children.” And many of the villagers fear that thanks to Moscow’s
policies, they too are being “’optimized’” and will soon cease to exist.
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