School law ok’d

  • 2013-06-26

TALLINN - Riigikogu has managed to approve the controversial basic school and high school law at the second additional session of the Riigikogu in the evening of June 20, after having been in session for nearly a day and a half, reports Public Broadcasting. Forty-nine MPs were for and 34 MPs against the law. The Riigikogu’s June 19 session started at 2 p.m. and, due to the delay tactics of opposition parties, that session ended the following morning, after which a new, Thursday session of the parliament followed. That evening two additional sessions were held during which the parliament managed to approve the law at 8.30 p.m.

The coalition said that the aim of the law is to modernize the organization of the education system – a better guarantee of equal availability of high-quality education, to change the forms of basic school and high school work, organize study work, management of schools, the work of teachers, and remuneration for their work. The opposition claimed that the bill leaves several issues unsolved, like the workload and wages of teachers and financing of support services.
Social Democratic Party MP Sven Mikser said that if the president doesn’t send the law back to the Riigikogu, then the SDP will propose doing so.