Belobrovtsev Defends Social Democrats in Russian Schools Tiff
Vadim Belobrovtsev, a board member of the Social Democratic Party and former deputy mayor, has defended his party's stance on education policy in the City of Tallinn, saying that it has not gone back on its pledge to support Russian schools in the process of change to Estonian-language instruction.
Last week the Social Democrats drew the ire of Deputy Mayor Jana Toom after its members on the municipality's Education and Culture Committee voted against a measure to keep Russian as the primary language of instruction in 11 out of the city's 22 Russian schools.
National policy dictates that Russian upper secondary schools make the switch to having 60 percent Estonian-language curriculum this September, but the move is controversial both because some parents see it as a violation of their rights and because many schools lack the necessary teachers.
Before the March 6 elections, the Social Democrats had come out strongly in favor of the idea of allowing a portion of the schools to retain Russian as their language of instruction. However, two members of the party voted against the measure. Though it passed, Toom accused the party of reversing its stance and "abandoning" Russian education.
"It is difficult to agree with the statement by Yana Toom, who said after the vote that the Social Democrats had thrown Russian schools to their fate," Belobrovtsev told rus.err.ee.
He said that on the eve of the vote, the party had decided that each member could vote as they saw fit, and that some in the party were simply against the filing of the measure by Toom, which they see as politicking.
Belobrovtsev also noted that his party colleagues would like to see concrete plans drawn up by the schools that won't be ready to make the switch in September, and want to know what will happen in the future since the schools would still have to comply to the national law.
Steve Roman