The Ministry of Education and Science proposes to assign the functions of intelligence services to educational institutions

On April 17, 2014, a draft resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation “On anti-terrorism protection of organizations carrying out educational activities” was published. The seventy-five-page document , which can be found on the unified portal for disclosing information on the preparation of draft regulations, was developed by the Ministry of Education and Science on behalf of the head of government, Dmitry Rogozin. The resolution involves the introduction of unprecedented security measures in educational institutions aimed at total control of what is happening on the territory of the institutions, as well as extracurricular social activity of employees and students.

In particular, educational organizations are required to “analyze the availability of personal websites and pages on the Internet among students and employees of organizations, the main directions of exchange and dissemination of information, including information of a radical nature” and monitoring resources “engaged in the dissemination of information of a terrorist and extremist nature " , which can be visited by staff and students.

In general, the implementation of such large-scale measures in educational institutions seems unrealistic to us, since educational institutions do not have the financial or personnel capabilities for this. And the document does not say that a detachment of special services officers should be assigned to each school.

We note, however, that the organization of surveillance of employees and students by educational institutions would be a large-scale violation of the right to privacy, which cannot be justified by any goals, including the fight against extremism and terrorism.

​Sources

• The Ministry of Education and Science of Russia proposes to monitor the Internet activity of students and employees of educational institutions // Kommersant. 2014. April 17.
• Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation “On anti-terrorism protection of organizations engaged in educational activities” // A single portal for posting information on the development of draft normative legal acts by federal executive authorities and the results of their public discussion. 2014. April 17.