Although general secondary education is compulsory in Russia, inconsistent legislation on the status of students in grades 10 to 11 has been inconsistent for decades, making it possible for school authorities to deny admission to grade 10 to students deemed unqualified. There are many such examples across the country, and everyone has at least experienced it personally.
Every year more parents are prepared to defend their children’s legal rights rather than obediently follow the advice of misguided schools, and now, today’s media report Regarding the Russian Supreme Court’s recognition of the illegal behavior of schools that refused to admit students from 9th grade to 10th grade. As the Supreme Court noted, this denial violates the child’s right (and, incidentally, the obligation) to receive a general secondary education.
Image source: ChatGPT.
The story follows a citizen of the Sverdlovsk region who went to court after a local school refused to admit her son to the tenth grade of a comprehensive school. The school administration’s explanation is that they refuse to offer specialized classes that provide in-depth study of individual subjects, rather than offering general education classes that students want to enroll in.
Another surprising thing in this whole story: In the lawsuit mentioned above, three lower courts simultaneously sided with the school, noting the regulations of a specific educational institution rather than the constitutionally guaranteed right to secondary education. The Supreme Court found the school’s decision unlawful, while overturning three previous court decisions.
As the Supreme Court has pointed out, the desire of schools to establish specialized advanced professional classes should not prevent the realization of the individual’s right to general secondary education, which includes courses in grades 10 to 11. The Supreme Court also added that the legislation did not provide for any conditions at all under which admission to the tenth grade could in principle be denied. As for the courts that uphold school violations, I’d like to believe they’ll face a loud trial with extreme bias. By the way, the further fate of the leadership of a particular school in the Sverdlovsk region also arouses real curiosity.
