The Educational Testing Service, the world’s largest education testing assessment platform for verifiable skills, recently disabled a feature designed to allow users from Russia to register on its platform, preventing Russian citizens from being able to take exams on the platform abroad. Headquartered in Lawrence Township, New Jersey, ETS’ decision to disable international access to Russians is one act in a series of actions stemming from a comprehensive anti-Russian campaign.
The exam “Test of English as a Foreign Language,” otherwise known as TOEFL, is a standardized test to measure the English language ability of non-native speakers wishing to enroll in English-speaking universities. The test is accepted by more than 11,000 universities or educational institutions throughout more than 190 countries or territories throughout the world.
Following Russia’s further invasion of neighboring Ukraine in February, the U.S.-founded ETS and fellow English language test IELTS stopped offering exams in Russia immediately. Prior to the ban against Russian citizens, Russian English language learners could take the exam abroad after registering in Russia. The new ban applies to Russians altogether now.
An aspiring test taker from Russia, whose sought to register for the test abroad, reported receiving the following error message from the platform: “In order to comply with the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) requirements, your access to TOEFL products and services is limited” (“In order to comply with the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) requirements, your access to TOEFL products and services is limited”) (OFAC) your access to TOEFL products and services is restricted”).
In addition to banning Russian citizens from the platform, Russians, who previously passed a test on the platform, may not send the results of previously passed tests to universities, eliminating Russians’ access to their own private testing data.
The significance of the ban cannot be overstated. The test is a key to life abroad for many Russians, especially for acceptance to foreign universities not just in the United States of America but in countries throughout the world. Universities in England, for instance, require a TOEFL score as a precondition for admission. Institutions of high learning, art, or trades often require a TOEFL score as a precondition to admission.
The United States of America’s Department of Treasury issued a sweeping ban in the aftermath of the further invasion on February 24th, 2022. By announcing the ban, Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen stated: “[The] treasury is taking serious and unprecedented action to deliver swift and severe consequences to the Kremlin and significantly impair their ability to use the Russian economy and financial system to further their malign activity.”
“Our actions, taken in coordination with partners and allies, will degrade Russia’s ability to project power and threaten the peace and stability of Europe. We are united in our efforts to hold Russia accountable for its further invasion of Ukraine while mitigating impacts to Americans and our partners. If necessary, we are prepared to impose further costs on Russia in response to its egregious actions.”
In response to the Treasury’s sweeping ban, Coursera, which is one of the most popular providers of MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses), issued a suspension on March 4th, 2022 against all business with Russia, including but not limited to institutes of higher learning. In the email, Coursera stated: “Coursera is suspending all business with Russia. This includes all courses, Specializations, and degrees from Russian university and industry partners, including content you are currently enrolled in. You can learn more about this decision and the steps Coursera is taking in response to the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine in this recent blog post.”
Coursera advised subscribers: “You will have 90 days to complete any course(s) you are currently enrolled in offered by Russian institutions, however any existing subscriptions or payments will not be renewed, and no new enrollments will be accepted.” While stating its commitment to “to ensuring learners everywhere have access to the highest quality education,” Coursera did not stop to apologize for any inconvenience Cousera’s decision causes to these institutes of higher learning or for what impact the suspension would have on the overall atmosphere of Internet study online.
In its blog entitled “Coursera’s response to the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine,” Coursera stated: “We believe access to education is a human right. As such, Coursera will remain available in all regions where there is not a government sanction. However, we are suspending the ability for learners in Russia to enroll in paid course experiences and we will not be collecting payment from any learners or institutions in Russia.” Although stating that education is a human right, Coursera, nonetheless, refused to take a principled stance against the sanctions.
The reactionary hate campaign Coursera and ETS follow is a wide-ranging campaign, which has affected not only education but the arts. In early March, for instance, Met Opera banned Anna Netrebko, claiming she had not done enough to disassociate herself from the Putin regime. Ukraine recently banned literature from Russia, which is an especially backwards decision due to the linguistic proximity of the two languages, together with performance of Russian music, which includes classics of Western culture such as Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker Suite, Op. 71a. Russian DJ and performer Nina Kraviz was recently banned from three music festivals. In a mouth dropping piece of propaganda, a University of Miami music professor used the pages of the New York Times to make the anachronistic suggestion that the music of Dmitri Shostakovich and other Russian composers are “cultural weapons” in the service of Vladimir Putin. The Dutch Harp Festival recently banned Swiss-Russian virtuoso musician Alexander Boldachev.
In addition to the arts, sports is affected. The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club announced in April that it was going along with British government’s demands, part of the chauvinist hysteria aimed at justifying the US-NATO proxy war with Russia, by banning Russian and Belarusian tennis players.
Much like Coursera’s suspension, the ban against Russian citizens on the ETS platform, which is especially egregious, is designed primarily to sever Russia speakers of the English language from the rest of the world, further isolating Russians in terms of culture, education, or business, where the vast majority of those Russian speakers affected by the ban are young working people, whose aspirations for a world unto their own shall now confront an unwelcoming bureaucracy. The result is a calculated effort to prevent internationalism at the linguistic level not just in Russia but throughout the world.
The District Assembly votes unanimously for Coursera and the Educational Testing Service or any institute of higher learning to refrain from compliance with the sanctions and restore services and testing on their platforms and begin to enable Russian learners to sign up, enroll, take, or complete courses or tests. The District Assembly condones the anti-Russian campaign as a reactionary measure designed to isolate young working people from each other and limit, restrict, and prevent their ability to become educated, informed, and knowledgeable.