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Mayor of Riga calls Russian schools’ transfer to Latvian language a provocation

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Mayor of Riga calls Russian schools’ transfer to Latvian language a provocation


24.01.2018

Picture: © Nil Ushakov’s Facebook accountTransfer of Russian schools to the state language is a great mistake, according to mayor of the Latvian capital Nil Ushakov. In his opinion, this political provocation does not do any good to educational system or stability in the country, TASS reports.

Starting 2020/21 academic year Latvian Ministry of Education intends to switch all schools to the state language. The initiative issued by the Latvian parliament members was supported by the head of the republic who called for fundamental preparation for this transition. The day before this initiative was approved by the Parliament. This draft was criticized by Russian-speaking social organizations and parents of children studying in Russian schools who rationalize that the law change will split the society and diminish the education level in the country.

Earlier Nil Ushakov has claimed that Riga authorities are going to finance additional lessons for national minorities. The plan is to offer extra-curriculum lesson in the native language for schoolchildren after a lesson in physics, for example, is over.

Financing of schools will depend on the number of schoolchildren. Educational institutions will define a range of subjects for additional lessons. The main task of the problem is to make children speak the state language on the same level with their native languages. The budget for this programme is around two million euros.

Almost seventy percent of the Latvian capital citizens vote for the proposition of city authorities about support of education in the Russian language at state schools. Less than a quarter of Riga citizens have voted against the initiative.

Russkiy Mir 

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