The President of the Republic's Roundtable of National Minorities will convene at the National Library for the conference ''Estonian Educational System and National Minorities'' on Friday, March 30, at 10.00. The conference is organised in co-operation with the OSCE Mission in Estonia and the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The conference will be opened by Hagi Shein, the representative of the President of the Republic at the Roundtable. The opening will be followed by the plenary session, where the Minister of Population Katrin Saks, and Mart Meri, Chairman of the Cultural Committee of the Riigikogu, as well as Mikhail Stalnukhin, member of the Cultural Committee, Svetlana Ragrina, Counsellor from the Ministry of Education, and researchers Ivi Proos, Urve Läänemets, Klara Hallik and Mart Rannut will make their presentations.

In the afternoon the panel discussion ''Concept of schools with Russian as teaching language in Estonia'' will take place.

Then, at 16.00, Mikhail Stalnukhin will lead the discussion ''Problems of bi- and multilingual learning environment'', and Rein Järvelill will lead the discussion ''Integration process and education: the identity and education models of national minorities''.

At 17.30, the conclusive plenary session of the conference will start.

The working languages of the conference are Estonian, Russian and English, synchronous translation will be provided.

The conference will be attended by politicians, researchers, cultural figures, representatives of national minorities, as well as schoolteachers and guests from abroad.

All journalists are welcome to reflect the conference.


Press Service of the Office of the President
Kadriorg, March 28, 2001

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