Russian-language education extended in Estonia

Date: Wed, 17 Sep 97 16:33:18 -0500
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Message-Id: <[email protected]>
To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
Subject: Russian-language education extended in Estonia

From:  MINELRES moderator       \ Internet:    ([email protected])

Original sender: Vello Pettai             \ Internet:    ([email protected])

 Russian-language education extended in Estonia

ESTONIAN PARLIAMENT EXTENDS RUSSIAN-LANGUAGE EDUCATION

The Estonian parliament backed down on a plan to impose Estonian-language
teaching in Russian-language high schools by the year 2000 by agreeing on
September 10 to extend the deadline to the school year 2007-8.

The Law on Elementary and Secondary Schools (or gu"mnasia) was originally
passed in 1993 and would have required state-financed Russian-language high
schools to convert to Estonian language by the year 2000. (Privately-funded
high schools would be permitted to continue in Russian.) The move was
favored by the government as a way of improving Russian-speaking students'
knowledge of Estonian before they enter Estonian universities, where
teaching is in Estonian.  It was also meant as a way of helping to integrate
the Russian-speaking minority more into Estonian life as only some 20% of
Russians in Estonia are fluent in Estonian. Lastly, it should be mentioned
that the government's original deadline had been 2007, however, this was
changed by amendment in parliament when the law was adopted in 1993.

Since then, leaders of the 450,000-strong Russian-speaking minority in
Estonia have continually  criticized the plan as unrealistic and
discriminatory.  They pointed especially to areas of the country, such as
cities in the northeast, where Russians make up 75-90% of the population and
who therefore would have great difficulty in teaching children in Estonian. 

In addition, during the years following the law's initial adoption, the
Ministry of Education appeared to do very little to prepare for the change,
such as train new Estonian-speaking teachers or work out a strategy for the
transformation.

As a result, with the turn-of-the-century deadline approaching, it became
clear that the parliament would have to change the law.  During sometimes
heated debate in the Riigikogu, 4 Russian deputies called for the deadline
to be scrapped altogether.  They also insisted that cutting back Russian-
language education was incongruous with Estonia's future entry into the
European Union.  However, these arguments was rejected by the full
parliament and ultimately the deadline was preserved and extended to 2007-8.
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