Ansip Defends Stance on Russian Schools
In a parliamentary question session on January 25, Prime Minister Andrus Ansip once again defended the 60 percent Estonian-language curriculum policy recently imposed on Russian-language upper secondary schools, saying that the transition process was generally going smoothly.
Responding to criticism from Centre Party MP Yana Toom that the government's decision in late December to deny 15 Russian-language high schools an exemption from the changeover had not yet been officially published, Ansip said he was not aware of the omission.
"It's sad to hear that. I'm sorry. What more can I say? [...] But it is encouraging that almost all Russian schools have begun the transition to Estonian-language instruction, and this process is going very well," he said.
“All the schools have asked the government for money to conduct additional training for teachers to acquire the necessary teaching skills and to carry out extra-curricular activities in Estonian. And I'm glad that these processes are moving.”
Ansip said that everyone realizes the importance of being able to speak the state language, and said that despite what he called efforts by some local governments to prevent the transition, it was nevertheless going forward.
Steve Roman