The NA had proposed that the Education Law should "prohibit a person from holding a teaching post if he is a citizen of the Russian Federation or the Republic of Belarus".
NA representative Artūrs Butāns told the meeting that he had heard the counter-argument that there was a shortage of teachers in Latvia. But "we also have a shortage of National Armed Forces instructors, and Latvia has many retired USSR servicemen. Maybe we are recruiting them too? You will all agree that this is absurd, so let's eliminate just as much absurdity in schools," Butāns urged.
He stressed that the NA is not targeting Latvian Russians who have acquired citizenship and have shown loyalty to Latvia, "we are talking about citizens of a foreign country" - a country which the Saeima has recognized as a state of terrorism.
23 MPs voted in favor of referring the proposal to committees, 29 voted against and 34 abstained, so the proposal will not be taken further.
The Saeima had earlier referred to the commission the following NA proposal to prevent nationals of the countries in question from working in schools, but the Education Committee rejected it.
According to the Ministry of Education and Science (IZM), 198 Russian and Belarusian citizens work in Latvian schools.
