Russian school girl

[CitizenOfWorld]

COMPERE: Now to Russia where a high school student who sent a letter to President Putin found herself stripped of her graduation honours and heading for a dairy academy instead of medical school.

Moscow correspondent Irris Makler reports that this case is being seen as evidence that Russia is sliding back to Soviet methods.

IRRIS MAKLER: Seventeen year old Anna Provorova lives in a tiny village in central Russia. She wanted to film her high school graduation. She had excellent grades and was going to receive a silver medal, but the school didn't have a video camera. So she and her classmates decided to write to President Putin to ask for one, invoking the old Russian tradition of petitioning the Tsar, or the Communist Chief, or the President, for things you need.

But the letter was found to have punctuation errors. Anna had left out an exclamation mark after the President's name, for example. And when the Kremlin referred it back to the local authorities they demanded an explanation from the school.

Marea Gusovar [phonetic] is the principal. "The local authorities considered this letter harmful. They said it showed we didn't educate the children properly", says Marea Gusovar.

You see it turned out there were mistakes. It was written casually, just like a school kid's note. The letter had been signed 'The pupils of Grade 11, Vorobyovo School' but the local authorities determined that the handwriting was Anna's. They instructed the school to review her grades.

PRINCIPAL MAREA GUSOVAR: They proposed the following measures. A discussion of the case at the teachers meeting. And a revocation of our petition for a medal for her. We didn't agree to this, so the local authority stepped in and lowered Anna's grades itself by administrative fiat. The first she heard of it was at her graduation last week where she didn't receive her silver medal. Now she won't be going to medical school, only to a dairy academy.

IRRIS MAKLER: Anna Provorova says it's unfair, but she's putting a brave face on it.

ANNA PROVOROVA: I'm starting to get used to it, but my mother is very upset. I fell into the dairy academy. I did have other plans, but now I'll stop at this.

IRRIS MAKLER: Nine years after the collapse of communism this story has a Soviet flavour. Russia's new President, Vladimir Putin, is a former KGB agent, and perhaps Russia's citizens take their queue from that and know how to behave.

It seems that old habits die hard here; or perhaps they haven't died at all. This is Irris Makler in Moscow for AM.

http://www.abc.net.au/am/s142948.htm

Silver medalist can't write a letter without mistakes? Looks like authorities are right. There is an inflation of school honours - in fact local school teachers decide who will get a medal, and it isn't often corresponds to level of knowledge: there're a lot of medalists who can't even pass university exam (for their medal they have right to pass only one exam of their choice). This should be changed.

[C-Force]

[quote]Originally posted by CitizenOfWorld
...had left out an exclamation mark after the President's name...[quote]
An exclamation mark after the presidents name? Is that common practice in Russia.

What's a dairy school?

Originally posted by C-Force
An exclamation mark after the presidents name? Is that common practice in Russia.


AFAIK it's common practice regardless of reciever of letter. For example, if I'm writing letter to you, I should write something like "Dear C-Force!". Every country has its own rules of writing letters.

What's a dairy school?

I really don't know

[C-Force]

Originally posted by Alex_Ivanov

Wow, one learns something new everyday.