These plans caused a wave of indignation among Russian-speaking Latvians who make up about 40% of the country’s population

RIGA, June 21. /TASS/. Latvia’s Saeima has endorsed the finalized version of a bill that bans tuition in the Russian language at private universities and colleges as of the beginning of 2019. As many as 57 deputies out of the 100 deputies having seats in the Saeima voted in favor of the amendments to the law on education authored by the country’s ministry of education and science. The amendments force the private universities and colleges, along with the state ones, to switch the process of tuition over to Latvian or to one of the official languages of the EU, where Russian is off the list.

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"Exceptions are possible for certain cases," the Saeima said in a press release. "EU official languages will be possible for the programs that foreign students studying in Latvia enroll for, as well as for the programs implemented under international treaties and EU projects." "Not more than one-fifth of the curriculums covered by loans can be taught in a foreign language [Russian - TASS]," the Saeima said. "Foreign language will be admitted for the study programs where a foreign tongue in question is essential for achieving its main objectives, that is, language or cultural programs." The ministry of education and science came up with explanations earlier, saying the amendments would affect about 7.5% students who are getting tuition at private universities and colleges in Russian.

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