Protest against discrimination of schools for the Russian minority in Estonia

The “Russian School in Estonia” association has complained of the pressure of authorities on Russian schools. Authorities try to convert all Russlan-language schools to Estonian language, even the law allows teaching in Russian. Approximately 26 percent of the population have Russian as their mother tongue.

The complaint is addressed to the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Knut Vollebæk and the EU Commissioner for Human Rights Thomas Hammarberg.

The complaint reads, in particular, that attempts are made in Estonia to convert all Russian-language schools to teaching in Estonian, though the law allows teaching in Russian.

The association states that government officials mislead Russian schoolchildren’s parents telling them that the law on the introduction of the Estonian language as the only teaching language in all schools has already been passed.