Russia tightens Russian language exam requirements for migrant children

From April 1, 2024, a new law came into force in Russia, which requires children of foreign citizens to pass a Russian language test when enrolling in schools. According to the new rules, children must answer 90 percent of the test questions correctly to pass the exam.

What are the new rules?

Approving these changes, State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin noted that they will be mandatory for students of all grades. That is, children with foreign citizenship must pass the exam according to the following requirements:

Grade 1: Answer 9 out of 10 questions correctly

Grades 2–5: Answer 18 out of 20 questions correctly

Grades 6–9: Answer 20 out of 22 questions correctly

Grades 10–11: Answer 22 out of 24 questions correctly

Discussions and debates

Earlier, the Russian education supervision agency, Rosobrnadzor, proposed setting a minimum score of 30 percent for migrant children. However, this proposal was criticized and rejected by Volodin. He considered this procedure to be a violation of the laws on mandatory testing of migrants.

Migration policy is getting tougher

Volodin noted that during 2023, the Russian State Duma adopted 14 laws related to migration policy. According to him, the issue of migrants and monitoring their level of knowledge of the Russian language will remain one of the priorities of state policy.

How many migrant children are there in Russia?

According to the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, as of January 1, 2025, there were about 784 thousand minor migrant children in the country. This means that the new requirements for the Russian language exam will affect hundreds of thousands of students.

Legislation in the field of education for migrants in Russia is becoming more stringent. The new rules may become a serious obstacle to the admission of children who do not know Russian well to state schools. At the same time, Russian officials emphasize that such measures are necessary to regulate migration processes in the country and strengthen social integration. Follow “Zamin” news on “Telegram”