In an interview to NewsFront, Riga resident Tatyana Andriets retells her story of being a teacher in a school for national minorities
Andrites retells her experiences:
“Once, because of the low number of students a Russian 10th grade was rolled into a Latvian-language class. Noone cared that the class is russian-speaking and so are the teachers. The state language is above all. So every day now the kids enter the classroom with a teacher who taught to them in Russian all their lives and now it’s only awkward silence as he’s not allowed to anymore.
This leades to lowering the quality of education as neither parties are very intrested in the language. Still, they are forced to.” she noted.“If the teachers decide to continue teaching in a minority language, the authority board threatens them with criminal penalties for “inciting hatred”. Should the teacher not comply they fire them with no benefits, illegaly. The authorities do not care that the quality of educaiton suffers under these rules, they only care for making it look good on papers about “state language implementation” statistics” she adds.