The Latgalian Language in Education in Latvia
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THE LATGALIAN LANGUAGE IN EDUCATION IN LATVIA European Research Centre on Multilingualism and Language Learning LATGA LIAN The Latgalian language in education in Latvia c/o Fryske Akademy Doelestrjitte 8 P.O. Box 54 NL-8900 AB Ljouwert/Leeuwarden The Netherlands T 0031 (0) 58 - 234 3027 W www.mercator-research.eu [email protected] | Regional dossiers series | t ca r cum n n i- ual e : Available in this series: This document was published by the Mercator European Research Centre on Multilingualism Asturian; the Asturian language in education in Spain and Language Learning with financial support from the Fryske Akademy, the Province of Basque; the Basque language in education in France (2nd ed.) Fryslân and the municipality of Leeuwarden. Basque; the Basque language in education in Spain (2nd ed.) Breton; the Breton language in education in France (2nd ed.) Catalan; the Catalan language in education in France Catalan; the Catalan language in education in Spain © Mercator European Research Centre on Multilingualism Cornish; the Cornish language in education in the UK and Language Learning, 2009 Corsican; the Corsican language in education in France Croatian; the Croatian language in education in Austria ISSN: 1570 – 1239 Frisian; the Frisian language in education in the Netherlands (4th ed.) 1st edition Gaelic; the Gaelic language in education in the UK Galician; the Galician language in education in Spain German; the German language in education in Alsace, France (2nd ed.) German; the German language in education in Belgium The contents of this publication may be reproduced in print, except for commercial purposes, German; the German language in education in South Tyrol, Italy provided that the extract is proceeded by a complete reference to the Mercator European Hungarian; the Hungarian language in education in Slovakia Research Centre on Multilingualism and Language Learning. Irish; the Irish language in education in Northern Ireland (2nd ed.) Irish; the Irish language in education in the Republic of Ireland This regional dossier is compiled by Heiko F. Marten, Ilga Šuplinska and Sanita Lazdiņa. Kashubian; the Kashubian language in education in Poland Unless otherwise stated academic data refer to the 2007/2008 school year. All educational Ladin; the Ladin language in education in Italy statistics provided by the relevant educational authority, unless otherwise stated. Latgalian: the Latgalian language in education in Latvia Lithuanian; the Lithuanian language in education in Poland Meänkieli and Sweden Finnish; the Finnic languages in education in Sweden Acknowledgements North Frisian; the North Frisian language in education in Germany (2nd ed.) The authors wish to express their gratitude to Lidija Leikuma, Associate Professor at the Occitan; the Occitan language in education in France University of Latvia in Riga, and Veronika Dundure, the head of the Latgalīšu volūdys, Polish; the Polish language in education in Lithuania literaturys i kuļturviesturis školuotuoju asoceacejis (Association of Teachers of Latgalian Romani and Beash; the Romani and Beash languages in education in Hungary Language, Literature and Cultural History) who have assisted in providing information and Sami; the Sami language in education in Sweden data for this dossier. Scots; the Scots language in education in Scotland Slovak; the Slovak language in education in Hungary The Mercator Research Centre wants to thank Brigita Silina for her helpful comments. Slovene; the Slovene language in education in Austria (2nd ed.) Slovene; the Slovene language in education in Italy (2nd ed.) Sorbian; the Sorbian language in education in Germany Swedish; the Swedish language in education in Finland Turkish; the Turkish language in education in Greece Ukrainian and Ruthenian; the Ukrainian and Ruthenian language in education in Poland From Januar 2009 onwards Tjallien Kalsbeek has been responsible for the publication of the Võro; the Võro language in education in Estonia Mercator Regional dossiers series. Welsh; the Welsh language in education in the UK Contents Glossary ..............................................................................2 Foreword ..............................................................................3 1 Introduction ...........................................................5 Contents 1 Glossary 2 2 Pre-school education ..........................................21 Foreword 3 1 Introduction 5 3 Primary education ..............................................24 2 Pre-school education 21 3 Primary education 24 4 Secondary education ..........................................28 4 Secondary education 28 5 Vocational education 31 5 Vocational education ..........................................31 6 Higher education 33 7 Adult education 36 6 Higher education ................................................33 8 Educational research 38 9 Prospects 40 7 Adult education ...................................................36 10 Summary statistics 44 Endnotes 45 8 Educational research ..........................................38 Education system in Latvia 46 References and further reading 47 9 Prospects............................................................40 Addresses 55 Other websites on minority languages 61 10 Summary statistics .............................................44 What can the Mercator Research Centre offer you? 63 Endnotes ............................................................................45 Education system in Latvia .....................................................46 References and further reading ..............................................47 Addresses ............................................................................55 Other websites on minority languages ...................................61 What can the Mercator Research Centre offer you? ..............63 EDUCATION AND LESSER USED LANGUAGES Glossary ECTS European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System LAShOR Латвийская ассоциация в поддержку школ с обучением на русском языке (Association of Russian Language Schools in Latvia) LgSC Latgolys Studentu centrs (Students’ Centre of Latgale) LVLKSA Latgalīšu volūdys, literaturys i kulturviesturis školuotuoju aso- ciaceja (Association of Teachers of Latgalian Language, Litera- ture and Cultural History) 2 THE LATGALIAN LANGUAGE IN EDUCATION IN LATVIA Foreword background The Mercator European Research Centre on Multilingualism and Language Learning aims at the acquisition, circulation, and application of knowledge in the field of regional and minor- ity language education. Regional or minority languages are languages that differ from the official language of the state where they are spoken and that are traditionally used within a given territory by nationals of that state forming a group numeri- cally smaller than the rest of the state’s population. For several years an important means for the Mercator Research Centre to achieve the goal of knowledge acquisition and circulation has been the Regional dossiers series. The success of this series illustrates a need for documents stating briefly the most essential features of the education system of regions with an autochthonous lesser used lan guage. aim Regional dossiers aim at providing a concise description and basic statistics about minority language education in a specific 3 region of Europe. Aspects that are addressed include features of the education system, recent educational policies, main ac- tors, legal arrangements, and support structures, as well as quantitative aspects, such as the number of schools, teachers, pupils, and financial investments. This kind of information can serve several purposes and can be relevant for different target groups. target group Policymakers, researchers, teachers, students, and journal ists may use the information provided to assess develop ments in European minority language schooling. They can also use a Regional dossier as a first orientation towards further research or as a source of ideas for improving educational provisions in their own region. link with In order to link these regional descriptions with those of na- Eurydice tional education systems, the format of the regional dossiers follows the format used by Eurydice, the information network on education in Europe. Eurydice provides information on the EDUCATION AND LESSER USED LANGUAGES a dministration and structure of national educ ation systems in the member states of the European Union. contents The remainder of this dossier consists of an intro duction to the region under study, followed by six sections each dealing with a specific level of the education system. These brief descriptions contain factual information pre sented in a readily accessible way. Sections eight to ten cover research, prospects, and sum- mary statistics. For de tailed information and political discus- sions about language use at the various levels of education, the reader is referred to other sources with a list of publications. 4 THE LATGALIAN LANGUAGE IN EDUCATION IN LATVIA 1 Introduction language The Latgalian language is a language originating in the region of Latgale in Eastern Latvia. It is part of the Baltic language family. Traditionally, it was argued that only two Baltic lan guages have survived until the present day – Latvian and Lithuanian – with Old Prussian regularly being named as a third variety which died out in the seventeenth century. According to this view, Latgalian is the most distinct dialect of Latvian. In fact, Latgalian has existed as