Russians in Latvia cry foul over language
Policy to make Latvian mandatory for all schools is denounced as ‘discriminatory’
Riga’s plans to impose Latvian as the main teaching language in minority schools has created tension among some of its ethnic Russian population, resurrecting a long-running dispute with Latvia’s former Soviet masters.
In the Baltic nation where around a quarter of the population are ethnic Russians, only about 40 per cent of classes in minority schools are taught in Latvian.
In March, however, parliament voted through legislation which will raise that to 80 per cent, meaning from September 2019, all core subjects will be taught in Latvian.
Latvia says the aim is to improve end-of-high-school exam results — which are crucial for obtaining state-sponsored college tuition. Such exams are only in Latvian, a Baltic language with little similarity to Russian, which is Slavic.
But the move has been denounced as “discriminatory” by some of Latvia’s Russian minority who have staged months of protests — with Russia’s OSCE envoy and even President Vladimir Putin weighing in, citing “human rights” violations.
Although such a reform has been on the table for years, it only began to gain traction in 2014 after national ombudsman Juris Jansons said having separate schools looked “like ethnic segregation”.
Soviet occupation
While students from minority schools do figure among the top scorers, all but one of the worst-performing schools are Russian or bilingual, education ministry figures show.
“Every child should have an equal opportunity to get the same education,” centrist lawmaker and reform advocate Raivis Dzintars told journalists.
Within Latvia, ethnic Russians constitute by far the largest minority, accounting for 24 per cent of the population of 1.9 million people. Latvians make up 62 per cent, while the rest mainly include individuals of Belarussian, Polish or Ukrainian descent.
During the Soviet occupation which began during the Second World War, tens of thousands of Latvians were deported and equal numbers of ethnic Russians were shipped into the Baltic state by Moscow, altering the ethno-linguistic profile of the country. The move to shift the language balance has infuriated Russian officials.
Latvia says the aim is to improve end-of-highschool exam results — which are crucial for obtaining statesponsored college tuition. Such exams are only in Latvian.