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U.S. English Foundation Research LATVIA
Language Research3. Language issues: Where does one observe language to be a problem in the country? LAWS Latvia gained its independence in 1991 after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and obtained recognition from the world community. In July 1992 the Latvian Saeima (Parliament) reinstated the old Constitution from 1922 with Constitutional Law as a supplement to the old Constitution. In 1989, Latvian had been declared the sole state language and all official business was to be conducted in Latvian. However, the 1989 law also contained certain guarantees for the use of Russian. The Language Law was scheduled to take effect in three years. Two months before it came into force, Saeima passed a number of significant amendments that changed its very essence. All clauses but one where Russian was mentioned were removed. Moreover, the law established that all employees in state and private institutions, enterprises and organizations had to know and to use the state language, as well as other languages, to the extent required by their professional duties. In summer 1995 the State Language Center was asked to prepare a new draft language law. The draft adopted by the Saeima in the first reading was criticized by the Human Rights organizations. Nevertheless, the draft was submitted to the second reading with only minor amendments. The bill was to be considered by the Saeima on March 13, 1998 but it was suddenly excluded from the session's agenda. The media were informed that the American Ambassador had persuaded the postponement of consideration of the bill until April 2, 1998. On July 8, 1999 the Saeima adopted the State Language Law but the new President, Vaira Vike-Freiberga requested a reconsideration of several paragraphs. Later, on December 9, 1999 the Saeima adopted and the President signed the Law on State Language. The Law came into force on September 1, 2000. According to this law, the State Language shall be Latvian (Article 3). For the purpose of this Law, any other language used in the Republic of Latvia, except the Liv language, shall be regarded as a foreign language (Article 5). Basically, employees of the state or private institutions as well as foreign specialists and foreign members of an enterprise (or company) who work in Latvia must know and use the state language (Article 6). All documents and bookkeeping, legal proceedings and army documents must be in the state language (Articles 8, 10, 12, 13). The right to receive education conducted in the state language is guaranteed in the Republic of Latvia (Article 14). Article 9 of the Law on Education calls for the dismantling of the well-arranged system of State secondary education in Russian and in other minority languages. Surprisingly, the deconstruction of a system that has existed for more then 100 years, should be completed by the year 2004. The same applies to broadcasting, media, place names and personal names, stamps and letterheads. The law also stipulates that government bodies will receive documents only in the state language or with a notarized translation into Latvian. Heretofore, documents could be submitted in the Russian, German and English languages as well. In effect, the use of the national minorities' languages has been put outside of the law. At the same time, the law does not make it the business of the State to assist in the acquisition of skills in the State Language at all. However, without knowledge of it, by the actual working rules and concerning the status of the unemployed (Article 5), no one has the right to be offered work. CITIZENSHIP Citizenship in Latvia is closely connected with fluency in the State language. At the date of the information we have available, 28% of Latvia's population still had not been admitted to citizenship since the restoration of Independence in 1991. More than half of these were born in Latvia. Such a high population percentage of non-citizens was unique in the world. These non-citizens were representatives of national minorities. Only about 10,260 persons had been naturalized under the 1994 Citizenship Law through to August 31, 1998. This means that, of the 148,000 people eligible under the first three “windows” up to 1998 (20 years old in 1996, up to 25 years old in 1997 and 30 years old in 1998), only around 6% had actually applied for citizenship. Amendments to the Law on Citizenship approved in a referendum on October 3, 1998 came into force in 1999, leading to a large jump in the naturalization rate of Latvia's approximately 600,000 stateless “non-citizens”. On February 2, 1999 the Cabinet of Ministers adopted regulations regarding the procedure for registering stateless children as citizens of Latvia and simplified the naturalization procedures for persons over 65 years. The abolition of the age timetable or “window system”, led to an increase in applications to a monthly average of more than 1,500 by year's end. In 1999 12,429 persons received citizenship by naturalization, which was more than the combined total of the previous four years. By the end-1999 deadline more than 73,000 non-citizens had not changed their Soviet passports for non-citizen passports and thus risked remaining without valid identity documents. The government extended the deadline for the expiration of the validity of USSR passports from December 31, 1999 to March 31, 2000.
Updated (May 2002) CITIZENSHIP While the number of non-citizens in Latvia remained huge and decreased very slowly, in 2001 the Latvian authorities took a number of steps to promote naturalization and as a result, the number of non-citizens dropped form 551,064 at the beginning of the year to 523,095 (22 percent of the total population) on December 31, 2001. In 1999, the monthly average for naturalization applications was 1,265; in 2000 it was 891 and 723 in 2001 (10,637 people became citizens through naturalization). Since the beginning of the naturalization process in 1995, slightly fewer than 50,000 individuals have become citizens through naturalization. (Human Rights in Latvia, 2001 Report, Latvian center for HR and Ethnic Studies, http://www.politika.lv/polit_real/files/lv/LCHRES2001en.pdf)
Updated (September 2002) The Census 2000 shows that Latvian is a native language for 62 percent of Latvia's residents, although Latvians constitute only 57.6 percent of the country's population. Russian is a native tongue for 36.1 percent of inhabitants of Latvia, although Russians constitute 29.6 percent of Latvian population. During ten years of independence there was a considerable progress in Latvian language skills among minorities. In 1989 Census, the Latvian language skills were declared by 18-20 percent of minority representatives. According to the 2000 Census, 59 percent of Russians, 55 percent of Belorussians, 54 percent of Ukrainians, and 65 percent of Poles declared Latvian language skills. The number of minority representatives having no Latvian language skills is diminishing (78-80 percent in 1989, 22 percent in 1996, 9 percent in 2000). EDUCATION In the school year 2000/2001 there were 1,095 general education schools in Latvia, 66.3 percent with the Latvian and 33.3 percent with the Russian language of instructions. Only 0.4 percent of schools taught in other languages. In general, the population of Latvia is bilingual or even multilingual. In 2000, about 75 percent of the representatives of minorities declared certain Latvian language skills. Approximately the same percentage of Latvians declared Russian language skills. Thus, about 75-80 percent of Latvian inhabitants are at least bilingual (in comparison to 44 percent in the EU Member States). Latvian is studied in all schools, and 23.6 percent of Latvian pupils study also Russian. Concerning the Russians, 95.8 percent of them with higher education, 93.2 percent with secondary education and 91.8 percent with special secondary education wish their children could speak Latvian. However, at the same time more than 70 percent of minority representatives want Russian to be proclaimed the second official language in Latvia. At present, there is almost a balanced situation between Latvian and Russian. Latvian has the strongest positions in federal and municipal governments and it becomes the working language of the state and local governments and offices. The position of Russian is very strong in private enterprises, primary and secondary education, quite strong in police, public transport, health care and also in armed forces (up to 20 percent of soldiers have no Latvian language skills). THE FACTORS POSITIVELY INFLUENCING THE FUTURE PROSPECTS OF LATVIAN:
THE FACTORS INFLUENCE OF WHICH COULD BE DETRIMENTAL FOR MAINTENANCE OF LATVIAN:
Source: World Congress on Language Policies, Barcelona, April 16-20, 2002, “Language Policy and Protection of the State Language in Latvia,” by Prof. Dr. Ina Druviete from University of Latvia, http://www.linguapax.org/congres/taller/taller3/Druviete.html
Updated (October 2002) CITIZENSHIP “Panorama Latvii” featured an article about non-citizens and citizenship issues in Latvia. The newspaper reported that within a year the number of non-citizens decreased by about 31,000 people, however, only 9,000 became Latvian citizens, while the remainder either emigrated or died. Source: Integration and Minority Information Service of the Latvian Center for Human Rights and Ethnic Studies, October 15, 2002 The newly published statistics demonstrates that the growth of applications for naturalization is not very big, especially since May 2002. The number of applications registered in July 2002 (484) was even less than in July 2001 (636). According to the data of the Board for Citizenship and Migration Affairs, 514,298 non-citizens live in the country (22 percent of all residents), so the rate of naturalization (approx. 800 applications per month in January/July 2002) is very slow. According to some voices, a naturalization procedure in Latvia will not be effective without free language courses available to all applicants, and without significant amendments in legislative provisions (e.g. reduction of the state fee, simplification of examinations or automatic citizenship for all persons, who lived or were born in Latvia before the restoration of independence). Source: Minority issues in Latvia, prepared by the Latvian Human Rights Committee (F.I.D.H.), August 2002
Source: The Breakdown of the Residents of Latvia as to Nationality, (data of the Board for Citizenship and Migration Affairs, July 1, 2002), http://www.np.gov.lv/en/fakti/index.htm EDUCATION The Baltic Institute of Social Sciences published the results of its study “Analysis of the Implementation of Bilingual Education” (see English version at http://www.politika.lv/polit_real/files/lv/bilingv_en.pdf). The first recommendation of the authors was to amend the Education Law, to strike off the norm saying that students of the 10th grade in state and local secondary schools funded by the government will be taught exclusively in the state language from September 1, 2004. According to the results of the survey, 50 percent of schools are not ready to switch to Latvian as the main language of instruction in 2004, and another 40 percent will have to overcome difficulties in order to implement the reform. As regards the schoolchildren, 15 percent of those who will have to study in Latvian in a secondary school in 2004 definitely will not be able to do it. Another 69 percent will face difficulties. Only 4 percent of teachers, 7 percent of schoolchildren and 14 percent of Russian-speaking parents would welcome the situation when the studies were conducted overwhelmingly in the Latvian language. More than a half of the teachers pointed out that competence of the schoolchildren decreases as a result of the bilingual education methods (62 percent). Fifty percent of the headmasters underlined that the reform negatively affects the schoolchildren's psychology. Nevertheless, as the authors noticed in the project's annotation, the results show, that the bilingual education reform goes on successfully and during the last years minority pupils' proficiency in the Latvian language has improved. Source: Minority issues in Latvia, No. 54, Prepared by the Latvian Human Rights Committee (F.I.D.H.), August 31, 2002 Updated (November 2002) SCHOOL REFORM 2004 The chief adviser of the Riga City Council for the education of ethnic minorities, Jelena Matjakubova, considers the introduction of bilingual education as a good idea. The decision, adopted by the national parliament in June 1999, to change the language of instruction at all state-funded secondary schools into Latvian by 2004, is proving to be very complicated in Riga. The capital of the Republic of Latvia is, with around 850,000 inhabitants, the biggest city in the Baltic States. At the same time, Riga is a center of Russian Diaspora where the proportion of ethnic Latvians and non-Latvians is fifty-fifty. There are 65 Russian schools and schools of other ethnic minorities (Poles, Lithuanians, Estonians, Ukrainians, Belorussians and Jews) in Riga. The chief adviser explains that different models of bilingual education for minorities have been elaborated, taking into account a worldwide research on bilingual education and an analysis of the practical situation in Latvia. Models of bilingual education recommend four different implementation stages, from “radical” to “soft,” depending on the fact how ready a particular school is. The radical model foresees teaching all subjects in Latvian from the first school year on, with the exception of lessons in the mother tongue. The soft model introduces Latvian as a language of instruction step by step. It starts with the instructions in the mother tongue up until the 5th school year. Then the percentage of tuition in Latvian increases from fifty percent in the 5th year to all lessons in Latvian in the 9th year. The Riga City Council has a strong representation of Russian deputies, who are very skeptical as for the readiness of non-Latvian schools in the city to change the language of instruction to Latvian before September 1, 2004. According to the latest research of the Institute of Social Studies and the Latvian Soros Foundation only half of the national minorities' schools are ready for the switch. George Soros at the 10th anniversary of the Latvian Soros Foundation stressed the importance of developing bilingual education as a compromise between the Latvian and Russian communities in Latvia. He said that for the moment the future of the Latvian state and the Latvian language is safe, and Latvians have to be more tolerant towards Russians and their language and culture. The Soros Foundation has so far invested about US$ 50 million (51,153,000 Euro) into Latvian projects. Source: Eurolang News, Tallinn, October 25, 2002, by Alexander Shegedin, http://217.136.252.147/webpub/eurolang/pajenn.asp?ID=3898
Updated (January 2003) THE TRANSITION TO LATVIAN AS A LANGUAGE OF INSTRUCTION IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS On December 16, 2002 the Advisory Council approved the project aimed to develop a curriculum for minority schools, elaborated by the working group formed at the Ministry of Education. This project divided all subjects into three blocks: A. Subjects in the first group are mandatory and should be taught in Latvian B. Subjects in the second group are mandatory; however, up to one third of them may be taught in minority languages C. Subjects in the third group are optional and may be taught in minority languages without restrictions The head of the Association of the Support for the Russian Language Schools in Latvia Igor Pimenov, who is also a member of the Advisory Council, voted against the project, reasoning that he does not see how, according to the offered curriculum, up to 40 percent of classes can be taught in minority languages. He also argued that the Education Law in effect does not say anything about bilingual education and should be amended. He disagreed that the Latvian language proficiency could be the only and the most important factor in job market. Igor Pimenov stressed that Russian parents and students want to study mainly in their native language – so at least 70 percent of classes should be held in Russian. The Head of the Integration Department of the Ministry of Education, Evija Papule, commented that the possibility of teaching up to 40 percent of subjects in a minority language should not be viewed as a question of percentage volumes, but as a principle. She explained that the study program is divided into three blocks: A; B and C. Block A comprises basic, mandatory subjects of which only foreign and minority language can be taught in a language other than Latvian. Blocks B and C cover the subjects chosen by the school, and one third of them may be taught in a language other than the state language, i.e. a minority or a foreign language. There have been contentious discussions on whether mathematics and history should be included in Block A, where teaching is only in Latvian. Ms Papule insists that there are sufficient subjects for the maintenance of a minority identity throughout Block C alone, in which are included such subjects as the History of Religion and of Culture. The Ministry's project will be confirmed in March. Tatjana Arshavskaja, of the Latvian Association of Russian Schools (LRSA), criticized the Ministerial plan, saying that the possibility to use a minority language is overly restricted by the requirement that basic subjects should be taught in Latvian. She expressed concern that the use of Latvian in schools will lead to the assimilation of the minority children into Latvian culture. Although the Ministry claims that nearly half the lessons will be taught in the minority language, LRSA calculates that the real amount will be only 3 to 4 lessons a week. Olga Isakova, a Director of Maxima secondary school, believes that the majority of lessons have to be conducted in the minority language to avoid assimilation and preserve the minority identity. Should the 40-percent plan be imposed on schools in March, they will have to shoulder the responsibility to realize the concept and so will have to start from their staff language capability rather than from the content of the teaching. Source: Integration and Minority Information Service of the Latvian Center for Human Rights and Ethnic Studies, December 17 and 18, 2002, January 9, 2003
Updated (February 2003) The Minister of Education and Science, Karlis Sadurskis, repeatedly confirmed that minority secondary schools would switch to instruction in the Latvian language in 2004. The Minister claims that 27 percent of schools, especially in Riga, may face problems such as a shortage of textbooks and teachers but the Ministry will adopt an action plan in order to help them. The Ministry has also reserved LVL 20,000 to explain the meaning of the reform in two Latvian-language and two Russian-language newspapers. According to Yelena Ivanova, a headmaster of one Russian private school, another problem in educational area is that Latvian private schools receive financial support from the state budget and municipalities, while Russian private schools have to get all funding from private sources. The Ministry of Education and Science has prepared statistics about the language of instruction in Latvian schools. Almost 70 percent (69.91) or 227,552 of schoolchildren study in Latvian and 29.66 percent or 96,554 study in Russian. The last year it was 68.93 percent (232,239) for Latvian and 30.67 percent (103,350) for the Russian language. In Riga 44,233 schoolchildren study in Latvian, 49,068 in Russian and 784 children study in other minority languages. In Daugavpils, the second biggest city in Latvia, 12,110 students study in Russian while only 2,525 study in Latvian. Source: Integration and Minority Information Service of the Latvian Center for Human Rights and Ethnic Studies, Lauku Avize, Telegraf, January 30, 2003 and February 4, 2003 MINELRES, Minority issues in Latvia, No. 62, prepared by the Latvian Human Rights Committee, February 4, 2003 CITIZENSHIP In 2002, among 974,352 persons belonging to national minorities 511,357 persons (or 52.5 percent) were non-citizens, who do not have the citizenship of Latvia or any other state. Almost 30,400 (or 3.1 percent) of people were citizens of foreign states. Residents of Latvia by ethnicity and citizenship in 2002
Source: Data of the Population Register as of July 1, 2002 Source: Report on the implementation of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities in the Republic of Latvia prepared by the Latvian Human Rights Committee (F.I.D.H.), Riga 2002, http://www.minelres.lv/coe/report/Latvia_NGO.htm
Updated (April 2003) IS LATVIA READY FOR BILINGUAL EDUCATION? The results of two public opinion polls concerning bilingual education have been published in Latvia. One of them was funded by the Ministry of Education, the other by the Baltic Institute of Social Science (BISS) and foreign donors. Respondents included teachers, schoolchildren and parents from ethnic minority (i.e. Russian) schools. The government poll based on a self-evaluation test of non-Latvian teachers and examining their Latvian language skills, gave the following results: 41.5 percent of them have sufficient knowledge, 24 percent partly sufficient and 10.5 percent insufficient knowledge of the Latvian language (with 24 percent not answering). In contrast, the BISS poll indicated that only 10 percent of teachers in minority schools (mainly teachers of the Latvian language) have a good command of the Latvian language. Fifty-three percent have an average command while 36 percent (mostly science teachers) have a poor command of the language. While analyzing the poll, BISS experts mentioned that in fact there is no exact definition of bilingual education in Latvia even in the Law on Education. Some people understand bilingual education as the usage of two languages to teach one subject while others see it as the usage of two languages for different subjects. Source: Eurolang News, Riga, March 18, 2003, by Alexander Shegedin, http://217.136.252.147/webpub/eurolang/pajenn.asp?ID=4146
Updated (May 2003) FOREIGN AFFAIRS MINISTER POSITIVE ABOUT PROTECTION OF LATVIA'S RUSSIAN MINORITY The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Sandra Kalniete, believes that the status of Russians in the country is positive and the level of tolerance in Latvia is remarkable. Immediately after independence this was the most crucial problem in Latvia; however, after 13 years, enormous work has been done. Kalniete outlined that the minorities in Latvia are protected; otherwise an accession to the EU and NATO would not have been possible. The Minister highlighted two challenges in respect of minorities: ratification of the Framework Convention on the Protection of National Minorities and implementation of the Education reform in 2004. The first one will require launching of an information campaign to ensure that both Latvians and Russians can participate in the discussion and they understand fully the implications of ratification. As for the second one, a part of education will always be in minority languages. The Minister believes that the method of gradual introduction of Latvian will be successful. Latvia has spent at least 10 years to prepare teachers to be able to teach in both languages and students to accept this change. Source: Eurolang News, Brussels, February 27, 2003, by Hannah McGlue, http://217.136.252.147/webpub/eurolang/pajenn.asp?ID=4118
Updated (February 2004) CITIZENSHIP According to the latest citizenship statistics (January 1, 2004), there are 77.79 percent of citizens and 20.77 percent of non-citizens living in Latvia. Almost fifty-nine percent of the inhabitants are Latvians, 28.8 percent are Russians. Other ethnic groups constitute not more than 4 percent each. Sixty-six percent of the non-citizens are Russian. Source: Integration and Minority Information Service of the Latvian Centre for Human Rights and Ethnic Studies, February 23, 2004, Neatkariga Rita Avize, Latvijas Avize, Telegraf Updated (July 2004) AN APPEAL AGAINST THE EDUCATION REFORM A group of intellectuals and well-known individuals, representing both Latvians and minorities, has issued a call to the President of Latvia, Vaira Vike-Freiberga, the Saeima Speaker, Ingrida Udre and the Prime Minister, Indulis Emsis, inviting them to actively participate in finding a solution regarding the education reform. The appeal for a rational compromise is based on the concern that the reform and polarization connected with it has become a threat to the cohesion of the society. The document emphasizes the need to strengthen the role of the Latvian language in the society, while it also allows discussion about the way how to achieve it. According to the signatories, minority schools should be given greater freedom in choosing a teaching model suitable for them, without determining the proportion between Latvian/Russian language instructions. On the other hand, schools should be fully responsible for the Latvian language proficiency of all graduates, which should be verified by a final Latvian language exam. Without this exam graduation is not possible. Further the call encourages a direct participation of minority representatives in questions related to minority education. It requires the establishment of a department within the Ministry of Education that would be responsible for all minority education issues. Inspired by this appeal, also the head of the parliamentary group and representative of the For Human Rights in the United Latvia, Jakovs Pliners, has also sent an open letter to the President of Latvia and the Prime Minister. In his letter, he pointed to the necessity of an urgent moratorium on the education reform. He also suggested to grant to the minority schools' councils the right to define the language of instruction and the level of bilingualism; to divide the subject entitled “Latvian Language and Literature” into two separate subjects “Latvian Language” and “Latvian Literature”, at the same time increasing the number of lessons from four to six per week; and finally, to establish a Department on Minorities' Education Issues under the Ministry of Education and Science. At the beginning of July also the Riga City Council's Education, Youth and Sports Department decided that the Riga Mayor, Gundars Bojars, should call on the Prime Minister and the Saeima Speaker to make several changes in the process of the education reform's implementation. The city council suggested the following changes: to grant an exceptional status to Riga secondary school Nr. 34, where teachers of Geography and Informatics are not able to teach their subjects in Latvian; to decrease the number of subjects which must be taught in Latvian from five to three in the 10th grade in certain minority classes; to allow teaching of two subjects bilingually, and to increase the number of Latvian language lessons per week by one lesson. In the future the role and responsibility of municipalities in implementing the education reform should increase. Source: Integration and Minority Information Service of the Latvian Center for Human Rights and Ethnic Studies, June 22, June 30 and July 2, 2004, Latvijas Avize, Vesti Segodnya, Telegraf, Latvijas Vestnesis, Chas, Rigas Balss, Neatkariga Rita Avize Updated (August 2004) RUSSIAN-SPEAKING SCHOOLCHILDREN FROM LATVIA GAIN SUPPORT IN STRASBOURG In July 2004, a delegation of Russian speaking schoolchildren from Latvia protested near the European Parliament (EP) building in Strasbourg against a proposed school reform. The reform plans a switch of Russian language schools to Latvian (60 percent of school lessons in Latvian) from September 1, 2004. This was the second trip of 35 anti-reform protesters1 (22 Headquarters' activists and 13 members of Working Youths). Initially the trip should be funded by the pupils' parents, but finally the European Parliament compensated the expenses. MEP Sabo Tabagi met with the delegation and promised to present a report on the issue of Latvian ethnic minorities at an EP session in September. He also said he would initiate creation of a working group dealing with non-recognized ethnic groups in the EU states. The protesting schoolchildren were also supported by Finnish, German and Catalan MEPs. Source: Eurolang News, by Alexander Shegedin, Tallinn, July 28, 2004, www.eurolang.net THE MAJORITY WITH A MINORITY COMPLEX According to the results of the research entitled Ethnic Tolerance and Societal Integration in Latvia, conducted by the Baltic Institute of Social Sciences, the Latvians do not feel as a majority in their own country. They feel under threat, which results in intolerance towards other ethnic groups. At the same time the Russians cannot be considered to be a typical minority because they constitute a comparatively large part of society (37 percent). Besides the Russian language is self-sufficient in many areas of everyday life, although its status has changed recently. The research also shows that 77 percent of the Latvians do not want Russian to become the second state language and 76 percent support the implementation of the education reform. On the other hand almost 84 percent of non-Latvians would like official status for Russian and almost 68 percent of them do not support the implementation of the education reform. Source: Integration and Minority Information Service of the Latvian Center for Human Rights and Ethnic Studies, August 18, 2004, Rigas Balss, Chas, Vesti Segodnya THE EDUCATION REFORM AND THE SOCIETY The Baltic Institute of Social Sciences (BISS) conducted the research called Integration of Non-Latvian Youth in Latvian Society in the Context of the Education Reform. The goal of the study was an assessment of relations between Latvians and Russians in the context of the education reform. The results revealed that relations between these two communities have worsened recently. Attitudes of the Russian-speaking youth towards the Latvian language and education reform, and state affiliation are more negative than in 2002. Only 15 percent of students, 30 percent of teachers and 13 percent of parents support the education reform this year, while in 2002, 40 percent of students, 42 percent of teachers and 42 percent of parents believed the reform is necessary. One of the reasons why parents of minority students lost their faith in the education reform can be that their own Latvian language proficiency is not good enough to help their children with homeworks. Source: Integration and Minority Information Service of the Latvian Center for Human Rights and Ethnic Studies, August 25, 2004, Latvijas Vestnesis, Chas, Telegraf 1 Last year activists of the Headquarters for Russian school defense (HQ) also demonstrated in Strasbourg. Updated (September 2004) PROTEST ACTIONS AGAINST THE EDUCATION REFORM Currently the situation in Latvia is influenced mainly by turmoil over the education reform. This reform switches Russian language schools to Latvian (60 percent of a Russian language schools' curriculum will be taught in Latvian) from September 1, 20041. The reform has met with fierce opposition from the Russian speakers. Six parents went on hunger strike and they are determined to continue until the government declares moratorium on the law. On August 23, 2004 an anti-reform propaganda stall was opened in downtown Riga and several protest actions are planned for September2. A special research, conducted by the Baltic Institute of Social Sciences, shows a deep split in society on this issue. While in 2002, the reform was supported by almost 50 percent of Russian schoolchildren; currently the figure is under 10 percent. Only 3 percent of Russian children's parents and 9 percent of Russian-medium teachers support the reform. The Latvian government is trying to convince the Russian minority that the reform will not undermine Russian-language education in the country. On the other hand, however, the Presidium of the Parliament rejected the proposal of the party For Human Rights in United Latvia to soften the amendments to the Reform Law in an emergency session on August 26, 2004. The Ministry of Education explains that the reform concerns only the 10th grade of secondary schools, and has no effect on the forms 1-9. The Ministry Officials claim that schools can use training programs, where only 30 percent of the teaching time is in Latvian, 40 percent is in the mother tongue (Russian in this case), and remaining 30 percent in other languages. According to Jakov Pliner, the head of the For Human Rights in United Latvia parliamentary group, it is demagogy because the Law on Education clearly states that no more than 40 percent of subjects can be taught in a mother tongue and all exams will be in Latvian only from 2007 onwards. Source: Eurolang News, Tallinn, August 28, 2004, by Alexander Shegedin, http://www.eurolang.net/news.asp?id=4748 WILL CITIZENSHIP BECOME A PRECONDITION TO RECEIVE A SCHOLARSHIP AT STATE UNIVERSITY? Recently the government adopted new provisions, which stipulate that as of academic year 2004/2005 the amount of scholarship at state universities has increased from 8 to 70 Lats, but it is paid only to the students with excellent or good grades. The Head of the Saeima Foreign Affairs Committee, Aleksandrs Kirsteins, believes that when several students apply for one scholarship the preference should be given to the disabled, orphans and Latvian citizens. The Head of the State Human Rights Bureau Analyses Department, Liga Bikseniece, regards the citizenship criteria as a violation of human rights. Source: Integration and Minority Information Service of the Latvian Centre for Human Rights and Ethnic Studies, August 28, 2004, Latvijas Avize WHO SUPPORTS THE EDUCATION REFORM? The results of the research entitled Integration of Non-Latvian Youth in Latvian Society in the Context of the Education Reform conducted by the Baltic Institute of Social Sciences revealed that only 10 percent of minority school teachers support the ratio of the Latvian and Russian language in schools, stipulated by the education reform. Almost 65 percent of teachers support the bilingual model of education and 22 percent education only in the Russian language. Source: Integration and Minority Information Service of the Latvian Centre for Human Rights and Ethnic Studies, August 26, 2004, Vesti Segodnya 1 The initial wording of the amendments to the Law on Education suggested that from September 1, 2004 all state-supported secondary education must operate in the state language. However, according to the amendments from May 2003, not less than five subjects (besides the Latvian Language and Literature) should be taught in Latvian in minority secondary schools at the end of the transition period (2004-2006). Each school will determine which subjects will be taught in Latvian but up to 40 percent of the curricula still can be taught in the minority languages. Since the year 2007 all the state examinations and tests should be passed in Latvian. 2 The one organized on September 1 by the Headquarters for the Defense of Russian-Language Schools had approximately 5,000 to 6,000 participants. According to the Russian-language newspaper "Vesti Segodnya", the number of participants reached almost 25,000. Updated (April 2005) 22 PERCENT OF APPLICANTS DO NOT PASS THE LANGUAGE TEST AT THE FIRST ATTEMPT
According to the newspaper "Vesti Segodnya", the picture of naturalization looks optimistic on one hand, with about 2,000 applicants a month; however, on the other hand, about 22 percent of these do not pass the language test at the first attempt.
The Head of the Naturalization Board, Eizenija Aldermane, admitted that the increasing number of applications exceeded the capacity of the Board and also expressed her concern about insufficient language skills of the applicants. She strictly objected to the journalist's suggestion that naturalization requirements should be eased, arguing that the existing requirements are already too easy. She referred to the statement of the British Ambassador, who said that after eight weeks of studies any diplomat would be able to pass the Latvian language test at the required level.
Ms. Aldermane promised that no repressive measures would be taken against those applicants who do these tests several times. She also noted that free of charge language courses should not be offered to all applicants, only to those who are not able to pay for themselves.
Source: Integration and Minority Information Service of the Latvian Center for Human Rights and Ethnic Studies, March 24, 2005, Vesti Segodnya Updated (June 2005) TENSIONS IN LATVIA
The results of the study "Ethnopolitical Tension in Latvia: Looking for the Conflict Solution", conducted by the Baltic Institute of Social Sciences (BISS), revealed that the main source of conflicts in the country is a lack of agreement between the ethnic majority and minorities on ethnic policies implemented by the state.
For example, the majority of Latvians (77 percent) support the education reform, while only 26 percent of Russians and 35 percent of representatives of the other ethnic groups do so.
Eighty-seven percent of Russians and 75 percent of representatives of the other ethnic groups believe that Russian should be made a second official language in Latvia, while only 19 percent of Latvians support this idea. However, 84 percent of Latvians and 79 percent of Russian-speakers believe that in future the Latvian society should be multinational.
For the full text of the study, click at: http://www.politika.lv/polit_real/files/lv/etnospriedz_EN.pdf
Source: Integration and Minority Information Service of the Latvian Center for Human Rights and Ethnic Studies, April 13, 2005, Telegraf, Vesti Segodnya
PROBLEMS WITH IMPLEMENTATION OF THE MINORITY EDUCATION REFORM
The newspaper Diena looks at implementation of the education reform at the Riga Secondary School No 30. According to the results of an opinion poll conducted amongst students, only three out of the eight subjects that should be taught in the Latvian language are really taught in it.
A quarter of students are not able to study in Latvian. Teachers admitted that Latvian language proficiency of many students is very low; therefore they should translate to Russian during the classes. The native language is frequently used also in cases when modern teaching methods, such as working groups and role-plays, are applied. Several teachers stated that the quality of education is getting worse.
Source: Integration and Minority Information Service of the Latvian Center for Human Rights and Ethnic Studies, April 22, 2005, Diena Updated (February 2006) FF/LNIM ACCUSES THE INTEGRATION MINISTRY OF VIOLATION OF THE STATE LANGUAGE LAW
The political party For Fatherland and Freedom/LNIM claims that the Secretariat of the Special Assignments Minister for Social Integration has violated the State Language Law because its promotional booklets are provided also in minority languages.
Source: Integration and Minority Information Service of the Latvian Center for Human Rights and Ethnic Studies, February 2, 2006, Telegraf
28 % OF LATVIAN CITIZENS CONSIDER RUSSIAN LANGUAGE AS THEIR MOTHER TONGUE
According to the latest poll of the European Commission's Public Opinion Analysis "Eurobarometer", 28 % of Latvian citizens consider Russian language as their native language. It is an increase by 4 % compared to the previously conducted official polls.
Source: Integration and Minority Information Service of the Latvian Center for Human Rights and Ethnic Studies, February 24, 2006, Chas Updated (April 2006) STATE LANGUAGE CENTER: NUMBER OF COMPLAINTS ON THE DISUSE OF THE LATVIAN LANGUAGE IS INCREASING
The State Language Center (SLC) said that the number of complaints on the disuse of Latvian has been increasing during the last years. The head of the SLC Control Department and the chief inspector Livija Icaka has stated that most complaints were on the disuse of the state language in various organizations, primarily in private enterprises. She also noted that they have found more than two hundred false language proficiency certificates in the state joint stock company "Latvian Railway". In addition, the state institutions usually provide information on their activities both in Latvian and Russian thus accepting the existing bilingualism.
Source: Integration and Minority Information Service of the Latvian Center for Human Rights and Ethnic Studies, April 10, 2006 Updated (April 2007) STATE LANGUAGE CENTER FINES THE HEAD OF THE MATISA PRISON'S INVESTIGATION DEPARTMENT
The State Language Centre (SLC) has imposed a fine of LVL 15.00 (~ EUR 20) on the Head of the Investigation Department of the Matisa Prison. Moreover, it has obliged her to improve her Latvian language proficiency by the time of next inspection. The prison's administration has expressed incomprehension of the decision, noting that four months earlier the Latvian language proficiency of the official had been examined and graded as sufficient.
Head of the Control Department of the SLC, Antons Kursitis, has explained that the decisions differed due to recent amendments in the regulations of the Cabinet of Ministers, which set a higher state language proficiency level for prison staff.
Source: Integration and Minority Information Service of the Latvian Center for Human Rights and Ethnic Studies, April 5, 2007 Diena
Updated (June 2007) A MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT SHOULD BE PUNISHED FOR SPEAKING RUSSIAN WITH REPRESENTATIVES OF THE RUSSIAN PARLIAMENT
Peteris Tabuns' (MP/For Fatherland and Freedom) complaint to the Mandate, Ethics and Submissions Committee that the head of the Saeima's faction For Human Rights in United Latvia, MP Jakovs Pliners, spoke Russian with representatives of the Russian Parliamentary delegation has been dismissed.
According to Peteris Tabuns, Mr. Pliners had to speak only in Latvian since it is the only state language in the country.
However, the Committee has refused to punish Mr. Pliners with an argument that MPs often speak other languages during meetings with foreign parliamentarians.
Source: Integration and Minority Information Service of the Latvian Center for Human Rights and Ethnic Studies, June 20, 2007 Chas, Vesti Segodnya, NRA Updated (September 2007) ANTONS KURSITIS COMMENTS THE SITUATION OF THE STATE LANGUAGE Representative of the State Language Centre, Antons Kursitis, has commented the situation of the state language for the newspaper Latvijas Avize. He says that status of the Latvian language could be strengthen by the following steps:
Source: Integration and Minority Information Service of the Latvian Center for Human Rights and Ethnic Studies, September 3, 2007
Updated (November 2007) DEBATE ABOUT GRANTING RUSSIAN A STATUS OF A MINORITY LANGUAGE
MP Ina Druviete has caused dispute in Latvia over her proposal that Russian and other minority languages be granted official status (the status of an ethnic minority language). The State Language Committee has disagreed and said the Latvian language must remain the only official language of the country. Similarly, Academician Janis Priedkalns has said that the Latvian language should remain the only official language in Latvia since granting Russian the status of minority language would endanger the position and preservation of the state language. Druviete, however, argues that granting Russian the status of a minority language does not mean that Russian will gain any functionality that could harm the position of the state language. According to her, Latvian as a state language is endangered because it must constantly compete with two other languages: English, which predominates in business, higher education and science, and Russian with a wide usage in non-formal communication. Therefore, according to her, it should not be used in politics and state institutions. The Special Assignments Minister for Social Integration, Oskars Kastens, has stated that Russian language cannot be granted the status of an ethnic minority language in Latvia because it contradicts Latvian legal acts. The Minister believes that Russian language could be granted special status only because of the (Russian) Old Believers who resided in Latvia since XVII century. Oskars Kastens considers that at the moment, Latvia cannot afford granting Russian an official status, because implementation of such measure would require extra funding for special policy on support of the Russian language and translation of all official documentation. Meanwhile, an interview with the Director of the Latvian Center for Human Rights, Ilze Brands-Kehre, has been published in Chas. In her opinion, the Russian language should have legal status in Latvia as the language of interethnic communication. Mrs. Brands-Kehre has stated that majority of ethnic minorities in Latvia speak Russian and about 92 percent of all residents understand it; therefore, Russian should not remain as a foreign language in Latvia. Source: Integration and Minority Information Service of the Latvian Center for Human Rights and Ethnic Studies, November 15, 16 and 29, 2007 Vesti Segodnya, Latvijas Avize
Updated (February 2008) KURSITIS: “LANGUAGE POLICY SHOULD BE MORE SEVERE”
Antons Kursitis, Head of the State Language Center, has stated that the reason young ethnic Latvians cannot find jobs is that they have insufficient proficiency in the Russian language. This is also one of the reasons why large numbers of them emigrate. He said that the majority of employers in Latvia require their potential employees to be proficient in Russian. Therefore, Mr Kursitis considers that state language policy in Latvia should be more repressive of the use of Russian. Source: Integration and Minority Information Service of the Latvian Center for Human Rights and Ethnic Studies, February 21, 2008, Vesti Segodnya, Telegraf
LANGUAGE USE IN THE CITY OF DAUGAVPILS
After visiting Daugavpils (city in the Eastern part of Latvia), Minister of Justice Gaidis Berzins has stated that, even though the majority of the city residents are Russian speakers, that is no excuse for the failure of salespersons to give information in the state language nor for the use of Russian in municipal structures. Gaidis Berzins is planning to discuss the issue with the director of the State Language Centre. He is also considering various means of control for the implementation of the State Language Law in the city. Meanwhile, Mayor of Daugavpils Rita Strode said that the statements of the Minister are not objective because young generation in the city freely speaks the state language. Source: Integration and Minority Information Service of the Latvian Center for Human Rights and Ethnic Studies, February 6, 2008 Chas
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