Education and Science, Latvia

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Constitutional Court to hear complaint about language reform in Latvia's minority schools

BC, Riga, 27.07.2018.Print version
The Constitutional Court has accepted for hearing a lawsuit contesting the constitutionality of amendments to Latvian education laws providing for a transition to education in Latvian in Latvia’s ethnic minority schools, informs LETA.

According to the court’s representative Liga Kovalevska, the lawsuit has been filed by a group of Saeima members from Harmony party.


The applicants argue that the disputed language reform discriminates ethnic minorities because they unreasonably restrict the use of the native or family language in education. They also indicate that the reform would significantly restrict the students and their parents’ choice of the best form of education and the academic freedom of the students and teachers.


The Constitutional Court has asked Saeima to submit an explanatory letter containing the legal reasoning behind the reform plan by September 25.


The court has until December 25 to prepare for hearing the complaint.


As reported, on March 22, 2018, the Latvian parliament passed in the final reading amendments to the Education Law and the Law on General Education under which schools of ethnic minorities will have to start gradual transition to Latvian-only secondary education in the 2019/2020 academic year. The legislative amendments providing for a gradual transition to education in Latvian in all public schools will be implemented gradually from September 1, 2019, to September 1, 2021.


President Raimonds Vejonis has promulgated the amendments to the Education Law and the Law on General Education.

 






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