All About Latvia

Traditionally, 1st of September marks the beginning of the new academic year. Students go back to schools to meet teachers. When I went to school it was customary to bring flowers to the teacher. It was, after all, a day of teacher celebration.

This year, the day also marks the beginning of the next stage of the implementation of the hard-fought education reform under which 60 percent of 10th grade classes taught in minority — mainly Russian — schools are to be taught in Latvian.

During the summer, the Ministry of Education touted that vast majority of schools are ready for the reform. There are well-trained teachers. There are well-written textbooks. While the pro-Russian Shtab says that it is the duty of the state to provide the education in the minority language to the minority.

Beginning on August 23, the Shtab planned a two-week long stint of protests downtown Riga, whereby the shtab claims they would inform the public of the reform and what it does to the minority education. Two members of the organization went on hunger strike. The Shtab also calls for students not to attend schools on September 2, the first day of classes.

At the same time, worried about the ethnic tensions on the first school day the Latvian government invited several rock bands — a Russian band called Bi2 and a famous Latvian band Prāta Vētra (<a href=”http://www.brainstorm.lv/”>”The Brainstorm”</a>) — to perform in a concert. However, the Russian band refused to come when its manager found out why they were really invited. Prāta Vētra refused to perform as well, probably due to its loss of the lead singer in the car accident this summer.

In an interview to Rigas Balss on August 23, the adviser to the minister of education in the questions of minority education, Sergejs Anchupovs, said that for ethnic Latvians the reform means that minorities will be able to learn the Latvian language, whereas the oppenents of the reform, obviously, do not want to learn the language.

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As it has been widely reported on September 1, all state-funded (the vast majority) of schools with Russian as the language of instruction must switch to the Latvian in at least 60 percent of all taught subjects. Furthermore, if the proposal by the nationalist movement LNNK/TB passes, the teachers will also be required to be citizens of Latvia. In other words, those teachers who are non-citizens in Latvia will not be able to teach.

What effect would this — let’s face it — discriminatory policy would have on the quality of education for those students who happen to speak a non-state language. I think it would have a dramatic effect. It would make the minority students less able to compete on the labor market after graduation, which would mean a lesser paying job and a worse life. With Latvia’s entry to the European Union in May, it seems those from this category of people who can will relocate to live and work elsewhere in EU. And thus, Latvia will lose its valuable labor force, which will have its effect on economy, which in turn will affect the population’s well-being.

On Saturday, Diena reported that one of the members of Riga City Council requested the number of non-citizen teachers working in the education system all in the effort to determine how many teachers will have to leave their job, if the decision is made to adopt this legislation. For better or worse, the Ministry of Education doesn’t keep the stats on how many non-citizens it employs.

It’s not the question of the language any more. From what I’ve learned more and more ethnic Russians send their children to schools with Latvian as the language of instruction, becuase they see the benefit in being able to communicate in the state language. It is safe to predict that in a few years time, when the upcoming generation graduates from highschool, they will be able to speak both languages: Latvian — that they learned at school — and Russian — that they learned at home. Thus, the ever-escaping societal integration will be achieved.

On the opposite political spectrum than Latvian ultranationalists of LNNK/TB, the Russian ultranationalists, National Bolsheviks, don’t help the situation. On early Friday morning, the bomb blown up the door of the Ministry of Education downtown Riga. The Bolsheviks claimed the responsibility for the blast in an e-mail sent to the ministry. Diena says that the Bolsheviks promised more explosions, if the planned education reform is not cancelled. The message was sent from a free online Russian email service, in which the author insisted that the “discriminatory norm” be cancelled, claiming that no Russian child will learn the Latvian langauge.

Clearly, neither the proposed legislation, nor the explosion and threats are helpful and of benefit to the children of minority. The government might consider an alternative for the switch, or at least the postponment.

In the neighboring and more pragmatic Estonia, for example, where the similar reform is planned — but only for 2007 — some Estonian officials expressed a concern that along with the need for Russian-speaking minority to be able to communicate in Estonian, the idea of the switch is too soon.

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