Estonia's Russian community collecting signatures to defend last Russian-language university
TALLINN. May 17 (Interfax) - A campaign is underway in Estonia to defend the last Russian-language higher educational establishment - the Ecomen private economics and management institute, and education in the Russian language in general.
An appeal, signed by the heads of the Russian Academic Society of Estonia, Estonian Human Rights Center, Ethnic Minorities Chamber and Russian Society, says that Estonian Education and Science Minister Jaak Aaviksoo signed an appeal following Ecomen's inspection which urges the government to revoke the institute's right to teach students in management and business subjects.
"The situation looks grotesque. Shortly before the latest inspection, the ministry launched a check by an independent international commission by four criteria, giving the institute two excellent grades and two good grades," the appeal says.
"The minister's decision is a typical instance of harassment. Unconfirmed facts are passed for indisputable and intentional offences, while occasional flaws are portrayed as typical. Minor formal queries (for instance, the form of the seal used) are qualified as encroachments on the quality of education," the authors write.
The decision regarding the institute's future was made long before the claims were announced, and it reached the Estonian media instantly which launched a harassment campaign, rights activists and Russian community leaders said.
"The government's provocation matches the logic of the recent events in Russian-language education," they said.
"At first, 60% of the subjects at Estonian schools were switched to the Estonian language and then a ban was imposed on the municipal funding of private Russian-language schools. Now an attempt has been made to ruin the last private institute providing Russian-language instruction,"' the authors said.
The initiators of the appeal urged Estonian residents to sign a petition and "demand that this dirty business be stopped."