Cash-strapped state ends support for teaching Estonian language to Russian children

TALLINN - The Estonian Ministry of Education and Research is ending a project for teaching the Estonian language to groups where Russian is the language of instruction as well as to groups where the language of instruction is Estonian but where many children study who speak other native languages, Postimees reports.

This project, which aimed to bring the state language proficiency to a level necessary for obtaining basic education in Estonian, is ending three years earlier than planned.

The unexpected announcement to terminate the project by the start of the next academic year, under which the ministry of education paid salaries to 190 Estonian-language teachers to improve the  Estonian language proficiency of children from diverse linguistic backgrounds, took schools by surprise a few weeks ago.

In a spring newsletter, the ministry had informed the 19 schools and 54 kindergartens in East-Viru County and Tallinn participating in the project that all primary school groups that have joined the project would participate until the end of the sixth grade, after which they would take a national level test in the fall. The project was initially scheduled to last until the spring of 2027.

Irina Meljakova, vice principal of Sillamae Old Town School, confirmed that the project is ending earlier than previously promised. She recalled that when school representatives met with the project team at the end of the last academic year, the discussions and plan for the the project duration were different.

"It's a shame that years of work won't come to a logical conclusion," she said.

Minister of Education and Research Kristina Kallas admitted on the "Esimene stuudio" ("First Studio") current affairs show of the ETV television channel that she is cutting the Estonian-language component in Russian-language schools because the ministry's budget needed an additional eight million euros to raise the minimum wage of teachers to 1,803 euros next year.

Ingar Dubolazov, the ministry's head of transitioning to Estonian-language schooling, told Postimees last week that the earlier termination of the project to improve Estonian language skills among Russian-speaking children and the ministry coming up with additional funds for teacher salary increases are simply coinciding steps. This is because the project could not continue from fall when the transition to Estonian-language education begins in kindergartens and in the first and fourth grades of general education schools. The decision to end the project in kindergartens was already made by the ministry in the spring.

Although the Riigikogu passed the necessary legal amendments for a full transition to Estonian-language education already in December 2022, schools were only informed of the early termination of the language teaching project a couple of weeks ago. According to Dubolazov, this was due to discussions on technical nuances, such as potential additional costs or exceptions. He acknowledged, however, that the money saved by terminating the project would go towards raising teachers' salaries.