Estonia to teach more Estonian

Sep 01, 2008
In cooperation with BNS

TALLINN - Estonian schools have expanded the number of courses that must be taught in the country’s national language in an effort to revitalize the language and give minority students more opportunities.

The move means that all schools nationwide – including those that cater specifically to native Russian speakers – will have to include Estonian-language courses in both Estonian literature and either music or civic studies.

Currently only 17 Russian-language schools – about 27 percent of the total number of such schools operating in the country – meet the requirements.

Under the program, all Russian-language schools will have to teach at least 60 percent of their courses in Estonian from the 10th grade onwards starting from the academic year 2011/2012.

In the previous academic year, there were 30,626 students attending Russian-language schools nationwide, nearly 20 percent of the total number of students in the country. 

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