Baltic States – CIS, Education and Science, Estonia

The ministry received the application of the Tallinn city council to postpone the partial transition to Estonian-language teaching in 11 Russian high schools. The ministry had received a similar application concerning 5 high schools of Narva earlier, said the ministry’s general education department head Irene Käosaar.

“Since the transition to the Estonian language teaching in high schools has progressed so far according to plans, school principals and municipalities have confirmed that to the education and science ministry, then the applications of Tallinn and Narva city councils are surprising and unexpected and the ministry will analyse the applications very thoroughly,” said Käosaar.

There are 47 municipal high schools with Russian as the teaching language operating in Estonia. According to the education ministry plan, the high school level students of these schools should starting September this year start studying 60% of subjects in Estonians language, which is aimed to raise the competitiveness of Russian youths in universities and at the labour market.