Bilingual education in Latvia: current trends and future developments
Bilingual education in Latvia: current trends and future developments

Summary/Abstract: After regaining it’s statehood and borders from the Soviet rule, as a logical step followed in Latvia was a reform of education system, which would mean the integration of Russian-speaking communities and strenghtening the use and knowledge of Latvian as the sole official language of the country. Bilingual education which was introduced in minority language secondary schools meant that Latvian language was no longer just a subject pupils had to learn, but also a tool - language which pupils had to use while learning other subjects. This education reform started in 2004 and was fully finished in 2008, so now it is already possible to analyze and conclude whether it has reached it’s initial goals. By analyzing newest data author of the article shows that despite the complicated implementation of the bilingual education in Latvia it has reached at least one of its goals - improvement of knowledge and use of Latvian language among pupils of minority language schools. However, integration of minorities into Latvian community is a long process which still needs a lot of improvement. In the end of this article author gives her own view on future developments related to bilingual education in Latvia.

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