Russian Education Ministry instructs teachers not to use foreign messenger services
The Russian Education Ministry has told teachers not to use WhatsApp or other foreign messenger apps with their classes, Kommersant reported on Monday. Instead, they've been told to use VK Messenger and Sferum, a service built by VK and the state-owned company Rostelecom, according to officials from Khabarovsk Krai and the Kursk region who spoke to journalists.
A representative from the Nizhny Novgorod regional education ministry said that school employees there were asked to refrain from using services including WhatsApp, Viber, Skype, and Google Drive to prevent the risk of “confidential information leaks,” according to Kommersant.
The federal ministry itself told the paper that it did send out a “recommendation” for teachers not to use foreign messenger services, but that it only applies to work with the government-operated online system My School.
Back to school woes
At the start of the school year, the Russian Education Ministry introduced a new weekly class called “Conversations About What’s Important” to schools nationwide. Initially, younger kids were taught about “patriotism” and “love for Russia,” while the curriculum for older students directly addressed the “special military operation” in Ukraine. Ultimately, the reaction was so negative that the government removed all mention of the ongoing war. But that was far from the end of the troubles Russian schools are facing.
