• President appointed Laimdota Straujuma to the post of the Prime Minister
• Ombudsman: bilingual education system hinders sufficient state language proficiency of students
• MEP from Latvia Karlis Sadurskis proposes to introduce gradual transition of education in ethnic minority schools into Latvian language only
• Well-known Latvian composer Imants Kalnins called to stop the existing policy of setting fight between ethnic Latvians and Russians

Newspapers report that the President appointed Laimdota Straujuma (the Minister of Agriculture) to the post of the Prime Minister. Vesti Segodnya notes that Mrs Straujuma already stated that conversations about establishment of the government will be conducted with all the parties except the Concord Centre. The newspapers also notes that the nationalists’ party All for Latvia/FF-LNIM wants to appoint their representative Vineta Porina to the post of the Minister of Education with the main aim to transfer education in ethnic minority schools into Latvian language.

Vesti Segodnya reports about a meeting of the MP, chairperson of the Latvian Association for Support of Schools with Russian Language of Instruction (LAShOR) Igors Pimenovs with the Ombudsman Juris Jansons. During the meeting, Mr Pimenovs discussed with the Ombudsman his position regarding transfer of education in ethnic minority secondary schools into Latvian language only. The Ombudsman believes that the existing practice of bilingual education system hinders sufficient state language proficiency of students. The Ombudsman said that he sees problem not in the system but in the teachers who are not able to teach students in Latvian language.

MEP from Latvia Karlis Sadurskis proposes to introduce gradual transition of education in ethnic minority schools into Latvian language only. Mr Sadurskis proposes to start with kindergartens setting education in all municipal kindergartens in Latvian language. Than, after couple years to transfer first grades of schools into Latvian language only, and thus, in 10-15 years education in all state funded schools would be in Latvian only. Latvijas Avize

Well-known Latvian composer Imants Kalnins called to stop the existing policy of setting fight between ethnic Latvians and Russians. Mr Kalnins believes that Russia and Latvia have similar fate as both came out of common past. Ethnic Latvians and Russians done nothing wrong to each other, yet suffered at the hands of political leaders in the past as well as since the restoration of independence, and today’s ethnic Latvians and ethnic Russian residents form one Latvian nation, believes Mr Kalnins. According to Mr Kalnins, modern Latvia and Russia are new countries which solve similar issues and there is nothing those should be reconsolidated about. Neatkariga (7.01)

• Vladimirs Buzajevs: scrapping of Latvian language exam designed for non-native speakers discriminates against national minorities in education

 

Before 2011, the students of national minority schools had to pass Latvian language exam designed for non-native speakers. According to Vladimirs Buzajevs, co-chairman of the Latvian Human Rights Committee, once the uniform Latvian language exam (the same as for mainstream Latvian schools) was introduced in 2012 to national minority schools, the results of Latvian exams have fallen dramatically in national minority schools: the share of highest grades (A) was seven times smaller in 2012 than in 2011, while the share of the lowest grades was twice greater in 2012 than in 2011. In 2013, the "A-F" grades system was substituted with percentages; nearly two-thirds of students of Russian minority schools received less then 50% of the total possible score in Latvian language exam, while two-thirds of students in mainstream Latvian schools received more than 50%. The share of minority students with the lowest percentages (equivalent to "F") in 2013 increased thee-fold comparing to 2012 results. On the contrary, the share of minority students with high percentages (equivalent to "B" and "C") in 2013 is much lower. Mr.Buzajevs emphasises that the lower Latvian language grades of national minority graduates are the reason why many of them are not able to get the state-funded university education. Vesti-Segodnya 

• Saeima once again refused to grant the status of a bank holiday to the Orthodox and Old Believers’ Christmas

Yesterday, the majority of the Saeima once again refused a proposal of the Concord Centre to grant the status of a bank holiday to the Orthodox and Old Believers’ Christmas on 7 January. The proposal was supported only by the oppositional parties. Despite the fact that in the beginning of this year, the Reforms Party proposed a compromise option to set that once a year every person have the right to take one extra day-off, none of the Reforms Party members supported the Concord Centre's proposal this time. Head of the Concord Centre’s faction Valerijs Agesins stated that those MPs who voted against Orthodox Christmas spat in the face of 400,000 Latvian residents. Vesti Segodnya

• Vesti Segodnya: Ombudsman Juris Jansons compared teachers in minority schools who have insufficient state language proficiency with murderers
• Leader of the nationalists’ union Raivis Dzintars: Latvianisation of education system would be a real support to the Ombudsman

The Ombudsman Juris Jansons in an interview with radio Baltkom compared Russian minority schools' teachers who are not proficient in Latvian language with incompetent doctors whose work may lead to death of the patient. Later the Ombudsman explained that comparing the teachers with murderers is a metaphor and stressed that he wanted to say that teachers should be especially competent in knowledge of their subject and proficient in Latvian language. The Ombudsman informed the State Language Centre about seven teachers in minority schools and the State Language Inspection punished six of them. The Ombudsman stated that teachers who are not proficient in Latvian language break the law and rights of children. Vesti Segodnya

Leader of the nationalists’ union All for Latvia! Raivis Dzintars stated that Latvianisation of education system would be a real support to the Ombudsman. Raivis Dzintars believes that amendments to the Education Law should set a specific date when the education in state funded schools will be transferred into Latvian language only, for instance, it can happen in 2018 when Latvia will celebrate its 100th anniversary. “After that we can discuss – whether to start with kindergartens or primary classes or as proposed by the Ombudsman to transfer education in Latvian only in all secondary schools” – said Mr. Dzintars. Latvijas Avize

• Representative of the Ombudsman’s Office: proposal of the Ombudsman to transfer education in all secondary schools into Latvian language only was misunderstood
• Igors Pimenovs: LAShOR does not support the proposal of the Ombudsman
• Sub-committee on Patriotic Education supports proposal to set the proportion of Latvian music on Latvian radio stations in amount of 40%.

Representative of the Ombudsman’s Office Ruta Silina, in an interview with Telegraf, says that the proposal of the Ombudsman to transfer education in all secondary schools into Latvian language only was misunderstood. According to Mrs Silina, the Ombudsman cares about quality of education of students in Russian language schools and there is no question about transfer of education in all schools into Latvian only but about how to ensure quality of bilingual education in national minority schools. As reported, the presentation of the results of monitoring of bilingual education conducted by the Ombudsman’s Office stated that because 50% of students in national minority schools have good Latvian language skills there should be the transition to instruction in Latvian language only.

According to the Head of the Latvian Association for Support of Schools with Russian Language of Instruction (LAShOR), MP Igors Pimenovs (Concord Centre), the LAShOR does not support the proposal of the Ombudsman to transfer education in all national minority schools into Latvian language only. Mr Pimenovs believes that such action would split the society on ethnic lines and it would violate Latvia's international commitments and historical traditions of education in minority languages. At the same time, commenting the fact that the Ombudsman Juris Jansons was appointed to this post by the initiative of the Concord Centre, Mr Pimenovs says that, presently, the party is not planning to demand the resignation of the Ombudsman and, in general, evaluates the Ombudsman’s work as successful. Vesti Segodnya

The Saeima’s sub-committee on Patriotic Education supported a proposal of the Latvian Association on Development of Musical Industry to set that the proportion of Latvian music on Latvian radio stations should be 40%.  It is proposed to set that 20% of music should be in Latvian language and 20% - music produced in Latvia. Vesti Segodnya