Teaching | Estonia plans to revolutionize schools – This is what it’s all about

Estonian In Kohtla-Järve, there is a good-natured buzz at the main doors of the elementary school as students step out into the May sun.

You can mostly hear Russian in the corridors of the Soviet-era building. Out of the school’s 580 students, only 34 have Estonian as their mother tongue. The others are Russian-speaking, descendants of those who were moved to Itä-Virumaa during the Soviet Union.

A couple more weeks until summer vacation – and a couple of months until history is made at school. At the beginning of the school year in September, a large project to Estonianize Russian-speaking schools will start.

“Our school will be the first mixed school in Estonia, which will become completely Estonian-language. I am very proud”, says the director of Maleva elementary school Eva Adamson to STT in his office.

In the fall, in the first phase of the project, in all elementary schools in Estonia, the 1st and 4th grades must switch to teaching in Estonian. Russian-speaking kindergartens will also change to Estonian.

All schools are scheduled to switch to teaching only in Estonian by 2030.

However, Adamson plans to immediately extend teaching in Estonian to non-required classes as well.

“This is the right step for Estonia. We have been waiting for this for a long time,” he said.

Prime minister Kaja Kallas confirmed at the beginning of the year that the state will completely end its support for Russian-language school education.

In December 2022, the Estonian Parliament had already approved the changes to the law for the transition to teaching in the Estonian language. Only months earlier, Russia had invaded Ukraine.

Estonia has not let that stop the UN human rights experts have warned that the reform violates the rights of minorities.

Kallas has justified the school reform with efforts to dismantle the two-headed school system, unify teaching and increase the use of Estonia’s only official language, i.e. Estonian.

At schools there are now big problems to solve. Where can I find qualified Estonian-speaking teachers by autumn? For more than a decade, teachers have been required to speak Estonian at an intermediate level, but mostly on paper.

The school led by Adamson will have to leave 15 Russian-speaking teachers, only about half of whom will be able to retire. The school is now trying to hire new Estonian-speaking teachers by the fall.

According to Adamson, some of the students’ parents fear that the teaching level will drop and that they will no longer be able to help their children with their homework because they themselves do not know Estonian. Parents also fear that their children’s mother tongue will deteriorate.

at Kohtla-Järvi school we are still preparing for the fall with hope, because there have been enough applicants for the open teaching positions.

Many Russian-speaking schools did not want to give STT an interview about the situation. A teacher from a school in Tallinn only commented that it is “impossible” for their school to meet the requirements by the beginning of September.

Instead, the principal of Tallinn’s Oismäe Vene Lütseum Natalia Kislaja says that they have already filled all open positions.

“During the first transitional years, the level of teaching will suffer,” Kislaja admits to STT by phone.

However, he thinks it’s a problem that some Russians don’t consider themselves part of society.

“This is the last step to show that we are Estonians. Of course we value our mother tongue and culture. We will do everything we can so that the children will continue to know Russian scientists, poets and writers, but it must be understood that we live in Estonia and are citizens of Estonia,” said Kislaja.

“Maybe not right away, but this reform will help us all unite in 10-20 years.”