Russian School Defense Staff

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Russian School Defense Staff or Headquarters for the Protection of Russian Schools (Russian: Штаб защиты русских школ; Latvian Krievu skolu aizstāvības štābs) — movement in Latvia for protection of public secondary education in Russian. Leaders: Gennady Kotov, Yakov Pliner, for some time also Alexander Kazakov (deported out of Latvia in 2004).

Contents 1 Aims of the movement[1] 2 History 3 References 4 External links

[edit] Aims of the movement^[1]

Annulation of the provisions set in the Education law of 1998, which ordered the language of instruction in public secondary schools (Forms 10-12) to be only Latvian since 2004 (so-called reform-2004 or educational reform). Providing effective learning of Latvian language in the Latvian language and literature lessons and specific preparation of teachers for Russian schools.

[edit] History

The Staff was founded^[2] in April 2003 as a coalition of various organizations, most prominent being ForHRUL, and later expanded, involving lots of nonpartisan people. In 2003-2004, the Staff has organized the biggest political demonstrations in Latvia since the beginning of 1990-es (23 May and 4 September, 2003; 1 May and 1 September, 2004).

As a result, the Education law was amended in February 2004, allowing to teach up to 40% in the forms 10-12 in minority languages. The proportion "60L:40R", according to BISS research^[3], was supported by 20% of the teachers, 15% of pupils and 13% of parents in minority schools. The parliamentary opposition started two cases before the Constitutional Court of Latvia (abjudicated in May and September, 2005) with most of its demands being refused.

[edit] References

1. ^ Штаб защиты русских школ, официальный сайт
2. ^ "Ракурс" № 1/2003
3. ^ Cittautiešu jauniešu integrācija Latvijas sabiedrībā izglītības reformas kontekstā. B. Zepas redakcijā. Baltijas Sociālo zinātņu institūts, 2004 — 79. lpp.

[edit] External links

• English
  • D. Wilson Minority Rights in Education: Lessons for the EU from Estonia, Latvia (..), 2002 — p. 36—43
  • List of the most considerable protests in 2004
  • Latvians face new wall: language (CNN, 2004)
  • Excerpts from Latvian-language press, May-June 2004 and RFE/RL news on Baltic minorities, January-April 2004
  • Teachers in crossfire over Latvia's school reform (Reuters, 2004)
  • Thousands of Russian speakers protest new school language rules (AP, 2004)
  • Latvian lessons irk Russians (BBC, 2005)
  • Judgements of Latvia's Constitutional Court regarding the Education Law and international conventions and on private minority schools' rights to get public funding , 2005
  • Discussion in the European Parliament, 2005
  • Education law — edition being in force between 27.02.2004. and 15.09.2005.

• Russian and Latvian
  • Staff site, mostly in Russian
    • Staff video clip «Black Karlis» (referring to then-minister for education Kārlis Šadurskis), in Russian
  • Basic excerpts from Staff documents, international treaties and links: Russian, Latvian
  • Chronicle of Staff actions: 2003-2004, 2004-2005, in Russian
  • Official position on the reform, in Latvian
  • Education law, in Latvian — current version