At the beginning of the sitting, the Riigikogu held a moment of silence in remembrance of President Lech Kaczyński and members of the parliament of the Republic of Poland and other victims who died in a plane catastrophe.

 

* * *

The Minister of Education and Research Tõnis Lukas replied to the interpellation concerning establishing of Viljandi state school (No 420), submitted by Members of the Riigikogu Mailis Reps, Lauri Laasi, Enn Eesmaa and Valeri Korb on 23 March. The interpellators referred to the plan of Viljandi city government to establish a joint state upper secondary school on the basis of the upper secondary school classes of the current general education schools.

 

Lukas explained that if the council and the city government have decided something then their addressing the Ministry of Education and Research is totally legally correct. On the proposal of Viljandi city, negotiations have been started. The Minister noted that every state upper secondary school would be financed pursuant to the same principles as the existing state upper secondary schools. Investment money will not come from the account of other schools. The principles for financing state schools have been clearly stated in the Act and they are financed in pursuance thereof.

 

In Lukas’ words, the Ministry of Education and Research had made a detailed analysis of the school network of the county a year ago, commissioned by Viljandi county, which describes the forecast of the number of pupils and teachers, pupil migration and different variants of the needs of the school network depending on the criteria that have been set. It has been discussed with representatives of the county and local governments and heads of school on several occasions. The analysis is also available to everybody on the website of the Ministry, besides other county analyses. “The plan of Viljandi city is certainly very remarkable in the local context – to make a significant change in the current school network, to keep three basic schools and one upper secondary school as such,” explained the Minister. He added that the Basic Schools and Upper Secondary Schools Bill had not provided that kind of reform. “We cannot speak about an overall reform but, in the context of Viljandi, it is certainly a significant innovation,” said Lukas.

 

On the motion of the Rural Affairs Committee, the Bill on Amendments to § 102 of the State Assets Act (713 SE) will not be deliberated at the third reading at Wednesday’s sitting.

 

During the open microphone, Valeri Korb took the floor.

 

The Riigikogu Press Service