Estonian government plans to stop funding Russian-language education
The Estonian government has announced plans to stop funding Russian-language education and transition to a unified, Estonian-language schooling system, the Postimees news outlet reported on Jan. 16, citing Prime Minister Kaja Kallas.
The reforms are meant to ensure that all citizens are part of a single information space and that the number of people using Estonian continues to grow.
The government addressed the challenges facing Estonian-language schools during its presentation on various aspects of the transition in Parliament on Jan. 15. It focused on eleven issues, including the large number of foreign language-speaking students, which poses significant challenges for teachers.
The transition will take into account a child's language skills, the linguistic and methodological feasibility of teaching, as well as preventing the inclusion of Estonian-speaking children in classes where the language is taught to non-Estonian speakers.
The reform are meant to ensure “that we don't have two different systems — that's what we're working on,” Kallas said.
“It was a big problem, and I agree that it should have been solved a long time ago. But better late than never. In any case, we have to move forward."
Previously the Lithuanian Education Minister Gintautas Jakštas said that he was looking for legal ways to close down educational institutions for the Russian national minority.
This move came after two teenagers from a Russian-speaking school in Vilnius shot a classmate with an air rifle on Christmas Eve because he did not support Russia's war against Ukraine.
As of Sep. 1 2023, all kindergartens, in Latvia, along with first, fourth, and seventh grades, switched to teaching all subjects in Latvian. Second, fifth, and eighth grades will switch to Latvian on Sep. 1, 2024, and third, sixth, and ninth grades following on Sep. 1, 2025.
Estonia also launched a reform of Russian-language schools in 2023. The country plans to switch kindergartens and the first and fourth grades of secondary schools to Estonian in 2024-2025. The reform is expected to be fully implemented by 2029.
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