Latvian politician and historian Edvards Krusts took a position as a teacher at Riga's 13th school, which was previously Russian-speaking, with the best intentions. However, this experience proved to be so challenging for him that he soon decided to leave, which he discussed on TV24.
According to Krusts, even after the exams, many students do not have a good command of the Latvian language. He believes that there are still schools in the country that are effectively divided along ethnic lines, and the Russian-speaking environment remains quite closed.
The politician noted that the formal transition to teaching in Latvian has little changed the internal atmosphere in many schools. In many of them, the majority of students are still children from Russian-speaking families, and some teachers continue to communicate with the children in Russian.
Krusts admitted that his presence in the school as a new Latvian teacher surprised those around him — many simply did not understand how the educational process would be organized now.
Ultimately, he concluded that he could not work effectively in such conditions and submitted his resignation.
During the interview, the host asked whether Krusts considers his departure a sign of weakness. The politician replied that he understands such criticism and knows that some believe he should have stayed and tried to change the situation from within.
He also mentioned that he taught not only the Latvian language but also history and social studies, and it was during this time that he particularly acutely saw the scale of the problem. According to him, he was demotivated by the fact that some sixth-graders, who had already passed the centralized exam in Latvian, could barely pronounce even a few simple sentences.
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