Appeal to Kadyrov raises problem of extortions in Chechen schools

An appeal to Ramzan Kadyrov with a complaint about money extortions from parents at schools was spread on the WhatsApp by a user who introduced herself as a resident of the village of Starye Atagi of the Grozny District.

The author of the appeal wrote that she has two schoolchildren. "Not only that we bought the uniform from the school, now, they force to buy notebooks, daybooks, pens and other school supplies from school, so that all the pupils had identical items; but the price thereof is twice the market price," the author of the appeal wrote on behalf of schoolchildren's parents.

The "Caucasian Knot" has no confirmation of the above information presented in the appeal to Ramzan Kadyrov received from other sources; however, the parents, interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" in Grozny, have confirmed the urgency of this problem.

In Grozny, they demand from pupils' parents to buy exercise books, Liza, a resident of Grozny, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent on September 10. "They ask us to give 2000 roubles to buy a set of school notebooks. Besides, we need to buy some training aids, which allegedly are absent at the school library," the woman complained.

Parents are forced to buy textbooks because of the deficit thereof at libraries, an official of the Ministry of Education of Chechnya has admitted.

"Books are usually handed out by school libraries along with workbooks on the subject, but sometimes there is a shortage, because workbooks are spoiled, or not all of them are returned to school libraries; and then parents are offered to buy them," said the source.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on September 11, 2018 at 02:02 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.