Starting this spring, basic schools that transitioned to Estonian-language instruction under an accelerated schedule are required to calculate whether a student has accumulated a sufficient number of Estonian-language lessons in order to graduate with a diploma from an Estonian-language school.

School principals who spoke to ERR admitted the requirement caught them off guard. They had assumed that a student would graduate from an Estonian-language school by default, based on the school's statutes — even in cases where the student had studied in a Russian-language classroom for eight years.

"Indeed, the diploma would automatically indicate Estonian as the language of instruction. But to ensure society receives an accurate message, the school principal must coordinate with the support team for the Estonian Education Information System to mark Russian as the language of instruction on the diploma, if the majority of instruction was in Russian," said Ingar Dubolazov, the Ministry of Education and Research's director of the transition to Estonian-language education.

According to the Language Act, to graduate from an Estonian-language school, a student must have received at least 60 percent of their instruction in Estonian. Graduating from an Estonian-language school, for example, exempts a person from the language exam when applying for Estonian citizenship. In cases of doubt, the Ministry of Education must verify the accuracy of the diploma, according to the Language Board.

"The primary responsibility lies with the educational institution to provide society with accurate information about the language in which the instruction actually took place. And we hope to reach a point where we no longer have to deal with these kinds of consequences, because by law, completing a level of education in Estonian is what certifies language proficiency," Dubolazov said.

Narva goes its own route

It has also come to light that the Narva City Council granted its schools permission as early as last spring to teach some classes in Russian for a five-year period. Other municipalities with bilingual schools interpreted the law to mean that such decisions must be made every spring.

"When drafting the law, legislators assumed that proposals would be submitted annually in cases where schools were not yet ready to transition to Estonian-language instruction faster than required by law. At present, Narva's city council has projected five years ahead, having judged that the schools listed in their decision are not capable of meeting the requirement sooner," Dubolazov said.

A municipal council may issue an exemption allowing instruction in Russian for so-called transitional classes, based on a proposal from the school's board of trustees. The relevant section of the law states: "A proposal for instruction in another language must be submitted by March 31 of the previous academic year. The rural municipality or city council must decide whether to grant or deny the request within two months of the proposal's submission."

"The Basic Schools and Upper Secondary Schools Act does not require the council to make this decision annually or every year for the following year. According to the Narva City Council's resolution, permission for Russian-language instruction remains valid until the completion of the transition to Estonian-language education," said Larissa Degel, head of the culture department at the Narva city government, which oversees education.

"While the Narva City Council's decision is not in direct violation of the law, the fact that it was made for a five-year period reflects the city's limited capacity to make the necessary efforts to meet the transition timeline set by law," added Dubolazov.

The transition to Estonian-language education is scheduled to be completed in basic schools by the spring of 2029.

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