The Russian Embassy in Bishkek announced on 12 January that the Russian Federation has shipped 90,000 textbooks to Kyrgyzstan for use in schools throughout the country that use Russian as a language of instruction. The textbooks were paid for from Russian government funds. According to the embassy, more than 100,000 textbooks were given to Kyrgyzstan in 2003. The Kyrgyz Education Ministry said that more then one-quarter of the secondary schools in Kyrgyzstan use Russian as the language of instruction. At present, a debate is raging in the Kyrgyz parliament over a draft language law that some see as undermining the status of the Russian language in Kyrgyzstan. (Interfax)