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A bill passed the first reading in the Estonian parliament Tuesday which would limit the freedom that non-Estonian upper secondary schools established by municipalities have in their choice of the main language of tuition.
Bill restricting high schools teaching in language other than Estonian clears 1st hurdle
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During the first reading a proposal of the opposition Social Democratic Party (SDE) and Center Party groups to dump the draft legislation was rejected with votes 31 to 50. Amendments to the bill can be submitted until March 5.
The aim of the amendment is to rule out the possibility that a local government ignores the rule, by means of establishing a private law company, concerning the language of tuition laid down in the Basic School and Upper Secondary School Act, spokespeople for the government have said earlier.
Under the Private Schools Act, the keeper of a private school is free in the choice of the language of tuition. The amendment meanwhile sets out that the choice of the language of tuition will in the future be decided on the basis of the Basic School and Upper Secondary School Act also if the shareholder, founder or member of the private school is the state or the local government.
The bill of amendment rests on a proposal made by the chancellor of justice last year to bring the Private Schools Act into conformity with the Constitution. The justice chancellor found that the Private Schools Act was not consistent with the Constitution in permitting foreign language tuition in a private school without checking whether in a private school providing education in a foreign language the state had ensured the right of everyone to get tuition in Estonian.
Chancellor of Justice Indrek Teder referred to plans of the Tallinn and Narva city councils to switch some of the municipal schools to a private law basis, which in the justice chancellor's opinion made it possible to ignore the legislator's will and to provide high school education in a freely chosen language and to teach Estonian only as a foreign language.
The opposition Center Party dominated councils of Tallinn and Narva have opted for the municipal private school model as a possibility for Russian language schools that do not switch to partially Estonian language tuition to evade the requirement set out in law that they must teach 60 percent of classes in high school grades in Estonian.