Penza, 18 February 2014. PenzaNews. Ten Penza students will participate in inter-regional competitions in Tatar and Mordovia — Erzya and Moksha — languages to be held in Kazan and Saransk on February 19-22.

Another team of students are preparing to participate in the final stage of All-Russian Olympiad in Russian language and literature.

As the press service of the Ministry of Education of the Penza region told news agency “PenzaNews,” the region pays great attention to the study of the native languages.

“Thus, in January-February, we held the week of native language in educational institutions with prevalence of non-Russian students. There were competitions, student scientific conferences, contests and festivals. School teachers participated in the development of scientific and methodical recommendations on the study of the culture of the native people in language teaching, as well as training manuals,” the agency interlocutor specified.

27 schools of the Penza region teach native language as a subject or elective class. Annually, the representatives of schools with Tatar and Mordovia students participate in intellectual competitions. In 2013, six students bacame the winners of the inter-regional competitions in native languages.