Photo: MFA Russia
Foreign Minister of Russia Sergey Lavrov described Tallinn’s suggestion about joint schools for Russian- and Estonian-speaking children as unacceptable. In his opinion, this idea is not in the interest of Russian-speaking minority, Narodnye Novosti website reports. Foreign Minister is convinced that Estonian authorities thus try to incorporate the national minority into Estonian linguistic area.
Note, last month the authors of the draft law, which suggests a complete elimination of Russian-language education, submitted it to the Parliament of Estonia again.
For the first time, the law was not adopted with one vote difference. According to the document, all primary and secondary schools that teach in Russian should be transferred to Estonian.
Estonian politicians bring up the issue about the position of Russian language in Estonian educational system during the election campaign traditionally. The majority of political forces wants to reduce the range of its application, especially in education. This has already affected higher education, since Russian language has been turned down as the main teaching language at the state universities, and most classes in Russian gymnasiums are already being taught in Estonian.
Sergei Lavrov noted that the situation with Russian language in Estonia does not suit the European Union. He is hoping that the Estonian authorities are able to solve this problem.
Russkiy Mir
