In the Waiting Room

Judging by the e-mail I receive, I know that many of you are doing the same thing I'm doing. Namely, we're waiting for the Russian Ministry of Education & Science (MoE) to update their list of home study providers who are considered delinquent in submitting post-placement reports (PPR's). This list, also commonly known as the "MoE Black List," was last updated on April 2, 2009.

At first, I was hoping the MoE would be updating this list every month. With a publication date of April 2, I just naturally assumed that May 2 would be a good target date for a new update. Silly me. I should have known that the Russian MoE works on its own, often inscrutable schedule.

Many of you are waiting for confirmation that your provider has been removed from the list. If your provider was one of the more proactive providers and took steps to be removed, then perhaps there will be good news on the next release. Others, apparently, are waiting to see if they show up on the list a second time before they take action. If your provider is one of these, I assure you that their name will not be removed without concrete action on their part.

The real question, of course, is how often will the MoE update the list? The answer is that they haven't made any public statements to that effect. So, I don't know. But, instead of just waiting to see, I sent an e-mail off to the Russian MoE this morning asking specifically how often they intend to update the published list.

I have been successful at getting responses from the MoE before. The trick is to write the request in Russian. But just because they respond doesn't mean they always give me an answer. Hopefully this time will be different.

If and when they reply, you will hear about it here first. Meanwhile, I'm in the waiting room, right alongside you.