Kyrgyzstan took the second place in the index of the Russian language sustainability in the post-Soviet countries. Mikhail Osadchiy, Vice Rector of the Pushkin State Russian Language Institute, announced this at a press conference at Rossiya Segodnya.
In 2020, experts from the Pushkin Institute conducted a monitoring and comparative study of the Russian language and 11 other most competitive languages in the world, as well as a comparative study of the position of the Russian language in the post-Soviet countries. In the course of the study, for the first time, data on functioning of the Russian language in such areas as state communications, media, education, science, and the Internet were collected and systematized.
Experts analyzed three parameters: the Russian language in the state and public sphere, education and scientific communication. Kyrgyzstan took the third place in the use of the Russian language in the state and public sphere, the fourth — in education and the second — in scientific communication.
Based on the results of a comprehensive assessment of the sustainability of the Russian language, Belarus takes the first place, Kyrgyzstan — the second, and Kazakhstan — the third.
At the same time, scientists noted that a paradoxical picture has developed in Kyrgyzstan: 70 percent of students study in Russian at universities, and 30 percent of children — at schools. But experts warn that the Russian language, despite its official status, is inexorably losing its positions, because the Russian-speaking environment disappears, the motivation to its learning decreases, and functioning of the higher education system in Russian remains the only limiting factor in this negative dynamics.
«Bishkek is an island of the Russian language, and the situation is completely different in the regions. For example, in the Osh region, all parents want to send their children to a Russian school, but there are not enough teachers, three children sit at the same desk,» Svetlana Kamysheva, head of the Center for Study of Language Policy and International Education at the Pushkin State Russian Language Institute, said.