Among other things, the tests revealed a significant difference between classes that had already been using language immersion for a long period and those that started more or less from scratch in September.

"Those schools that have been practicing immersion for 10-20 years were very well prepared," the deputy mayor explained.

With the first year of the transition has now ended and the concerns that have arisen largely unsurprising, the Ministry of Education is only now starting to produce materials to help support teachers. There is a special teacher's book with details about how to prepare lessons, though it is not accessible to everyone.

"With this teacher's book, it is always a question of money for the schools, whether the school can buy this teacher's book for the teacher or not. At the Ministry of Education, we are now looking for a way to negotiate with (publisher) Avita to see if we will buy (from them) or what kind of agreement we will make to ensure these teacher's books are made more widely available," said Minister of Education and Research Kristina Kallas (Eesti 200).

As there are no separate textbooks or workbooks for children who speak Russian as a first language, every teacher had to create their own materials to use in class by themselves. According to Estonian law, this type of content belongs to the school. However, the ministry plans to buy it and create a common set of tasks that can be used in schools across the country.

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