Ethnic desegregation in schools is postponed indefinitely

Optimistic headlines announce the government's decision - Latvia will finally move to an education system in the national language only. Kārlis Šadurskis, a political activist of the Unity (Vienotība) party and former Minister of Education, writes: "The work I started in 2004 has finally been successfully completed." Is it really completed?

There is great doubt about that, and the practice so far only reinforces these doubts. As the well-known columnist Monika Zīle writes: "There are different infinities. For example, the cosmos, the passage of time and the transition to teaching in the state language in minority schools in Latvia." This sentence contains both disbelief in a real transition to teaching in the state language and something more serious, which is much less talked about. About minority schools. What will happen to them?

What will happen now? All schools will teach in Latvian, but the composition of the pupils will remain different, depending on the language spoken at home? I have not been able to find in any document of the Ministry of Education and Science (MoES) any indication of how the integration of the former national minority schools into a unified education system with the same unified enrolment procedure will take place. There is only a timetable for the transition to instruction in the state language: "The regulation stipulates that from September 1, 2023, education shall be conducted exclusively in the state language in pre-school education and at primary education level in grades 1, 4 and 7. From September 1, 2024, pupils in grades 2, 5 and 8 will be taught exclusively in the national language, and from September 1, 2025, grades 3, 6 and 9 will be added."

This means that until the 2025/2026 school year, minority schools will operate in the Latvian education system quite legally, as they have done so far. There is no word on what will happen next. In fact, the situation is even crazier. There is hardly any public discussion of the real situation today, when, under the current legislation, all (!) subjects are taught in Latvian in secondary school classes.

Perhaps the MoES has some secret studies on the extent to which this requirement is met in practice, but there is no clarity in the public sphere. At the same time, it is no secret that in Russian schools (let's call a spade a spade), the teaching process when an inspector from the education administration arrives at the school is not quite the same as in a situation where there is no "outsider" in the classroom.

I am, of course, being ironic about the "secret" studies, because this discrepancy between reality and the theoretical requirements of the law is turned a blind eye not only by officials and politicians in the MoES, but also by the general public. It is not an agenda item in the ministry or in the media. It is easier to set timetables, from which year, which classes will be switched to teaching in the state language, than to talk about how all this will look in practice and what the effect of such integration will be.

It is possible to want and to legislate that in a classroom where everyone speaks Russian every day and where there is a teacher with Russian as his mother tongue standing by the blackboard, the whole teaching process takes place in Latvian, but that is rather wishful thinking. Such thinking is what is being done now, because elections are approaching and there is a demand for a rapid transition to Latvian as the language of instruction in schools. Let us pass the law, let us report on what has been done, and let us collect the harvest in the Saeima elections on October 1. How the adoption of this law will contribute to the integration of society is another matter. That was not the aim of this bill.

Okay, but what are your recommendations? What do you suggest? I think that we have to admit that the whole project of integration of foreigners has completely (and I stress not partially, but completely) failed. The fact that the number of people who understand Latvian has increased significantly over the last 30 years (especially in the younger age groups) does not change anything. The dominant role of Russian (in inter-ethnic relations at the everyday level), although it has slightly diminished, has basically remained. If both parties speak both languages, communication is most often in Russian, not to mention the situation when one party speaks Latvian poorly. Then the switch to Russian is automatic. The situation in the labor market is not significantly different.

Language would be a trifle, which could be tolerated, but unfortunately the situation is even more serious. With language comes very serious, fundamental differences in world outlook. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it suddenly (?) became apparent that there are a large number of citizens in Latvia who, shall we say, do not see anything terrible in this invasion; who do not rush to condemn Russian aggression, let alone pin a ribbon in the colors of the Ukrainian flag on the lapel of their shirts. It turns out that there is a large number of citizens in Latvia who actually support, even applaud, Putin and his aggressive policy. In other words, a Latvian citizen by passport, but a Russian imperialist by world outlook. As in the LTV1 documentary "Vai citi?" one of their “protagonists” said: "We Russians don't need some three-arshin patch of land. We need the whole globe."

During the screening, social media posts went viral - what's going on? Why is such nonsense being shown during prime time on state/public television? To make it clear, even to those who do not want to see anything, that the integration process has been a failure. Millions wasted, various offices and funds maintained for decades, but the result is nothing. 30 years after independence, when by law 100% of secondary school education is in Latvian, graduates of these secondary schools continue to give interviews in Russian on state/public television.

There is no getting around the question of why LTV regularly shows (street) interviews of Latvian citizens in Russian. The arguments are simple - they are our citizens, they have every right to speak as they prefer, i.e. in their mother tongue. We need to reflect the whole spectrum of society so that everyone feels represented in the public media. Unfortunately, these arguments are false.

LTV has for a long time positioned itself as a distinct public education medium which, rather than reflecting the whole spectrum of real society, steers it in a particular ideological direction. It teaches the right way to think and behave. Therefore, an editorial requirement that only Latvian citizens (citizens of other countries are not included) who speak Latvian should be on air would be fully in line with the tasks of a public service media. But this is not the case. Apparently, Latvian public service media do not see the promotion of Latvianness as an objective. It is not part of the concept of global "preparation".

The reasons for the failure of the integration process are manifold, but there is no dispute about one thing. It is the maintenance of a different education system for all these 30 years. The graduates of Russian schools who have integrated into a Latvian environment in later life all as one recognize the spirit of these schools, to put it cautiously, as not very supportive of the ideas of Latvianness. Unfortunately, the desire to dismantle this system has been insufficient, and even now nothing has changed. There is still talk of a gradual shift to teaching in Latvian, but not of abolishing these "minority" schools as a class.

There is reluctance on both sides to discuss this issue. Russian speakers fear rapid assimilation, while ethnic Latvians fear that a unified network of kindergartens and schools will destroy the foundations of Latvian identity; Russian children, with their aggressiveness, will "oppress" Latvian children and dominate. Especially in big cities, where they could outnumber them in classes and groups.

We can continue to be afraid and come back to this issue in 30 years' time. With as little change as in the previous 30 years. Or we can stop being afraid and start real integration. Start building a united nation for real, ending the maintenance of ethnic segregation. Starting by abolishing ethnic minority schools as such. That would then be the primary task of school reform.

*****

Be the first to read interesting news from Latvia and the world by joining our Telegram and Signal channels.