Latvian Parliament has approved the law of transferring all Russian schools in the country into the Latvian language in the preliminary reading, TASS reports. Twenty-one votes were against the transfer and sixty-six deputies supported the discriminative actions.
According to the accepted procedures, now the document should be passed on to the professional commission and after its approval will be returned to the Parliament for final confirmation.
Today’s morning Russian compatriots protesting against forced assimilation of the Russian-speaking population gathered by the Parliament building in Riga. They wanted to warn the deputies that the draft about reorganization of Russian-language education is of very poor quality. The protesters have noted that the document is based on completely false statements.
«We agitate for development of education of national minorities in Latvia and preservation of the Russian language and other minority languages at schools», said representative of the Headquarters for the Russian schools’ protection and co-chairman of Russian Union of Latvia party Miroslav Mitrofanov.
Note that starting 2020/21 academic year, Ministry of Education and Science of Latvia intends to switch Russian schools into Latvian language. The initiative issued by the Latvian parliament members was supported by President who called for fundamental preparation for this transition. Last week 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.
Russkiy Mir
