Latvia will abandon Russian as a second foreign language in schools

The government of Latvia is preparing a decision regarding restrictions on the Russian language in the country. Russian language will not be studied in Latvian schools as a second foreign language.

This is reported by RBC-Ukraine with reference to Delfi.

The Latvian government is preparing to adopt a ban on learning Russian as a second foreign language on April 23. According to the decision of the authorities, starting from the 2026/2027 academic year, schools will gradually have to offer students as a second foreign language one of the official languages of the European Union or member states of the European Economic Area, or another foreign language, but not Russian.

During the public discussion of the ban, the Ministry of Education of Latvia received more than 300 objections from private individuals.

The main reasons for dissatisfaction boil down to the fact that children should not be limited in their learning of their native language, and should decide for themselves which language to learn. It is also emphasized that the rejection of the Russian language is unacceptable for political reasons.

Let's add that in Latvia, the first foreign language is studied in schools from the first grade. A second foreign language begins to be studied at the end of primary school. In fact, in Latvia, Russian is more often chosen as a second foreign language, because there are not enough teachers of other languages in schools.

Author - Serhii Kolomiets, 22/04/2024