"The catastrophe will continue." The deputy commented on the language reform in minority schools 0 11

Independent deputy Alexander Kiršteins noted during today's debates in the Saeima regarding the state language policy that the transition of minority schools to the state language is currently progressing very slowly and good results should not be expected. "The catastrophe will continue," the politician is convinced. He believes that it is impossible to provide a Latvian language environment if for 80 percent of students in the class and throughout the school, Latvian is not their native language, and if for teachers, Latvian is also not their native language. "My assistant teaches in such a school and says that some students do not even understand what he is saying during the lesson. And there are teachers who do not speak Latvian," the deputy continued. He believes that if a student has completed the 9th grade but does not have a sufficient command of the state language, they should not be admitted directly to high school. "They need to take an academic leave and spend a whole year learning Latvian," A. Kiršteins believes. According to him, a student who cannot write an essay in Latvian should not be allowed to study in a gymnasium.

The deputy suggested that students should still be distributed among schools and classes in such a way that representatives of national minorities make up no more than 10-20 percent in the class.