This year, when all 1st and 4th grade classes in Estonia began studying in Estonian, the main focus was on improving teachers' language skills. The Ministry of Education admitted that it was not possible to tackle every issue.

"One area we definitely weren't able to invest as much in as we should have during the first year is teaching methodology and student learning motivation. In other words, how to teach and how to teach in a way that makes students actually want to learn and not feel like, 'I don't understand anything, and I don't want to come to school anymore.' These are currently two of our biggest concerns," said Ministry of Education Deputy Secretary General Kairi Kaldoja.

For the new academic year, the ministry is creating a separate transition department. Until now, responsibility for the transition has been distributed across the entire ministry.

"Now there needs to be a clearly defined team whose main job this is. Every morning when they come to work, they need to focus specifically on transition-related issues. This can't be handled as just some side task," Kaldoja told "Aktuaalne kaamera."

Former Minister of Education Tõnis Lukas, a member of the opposition party Isamaa, said there is currently a lack of learning materials.

He also believes that when beginning language learning, children whose home language is Estonian and those whose home language is Russian should be placed in separate groups until their skills are aligned.

"To separate Estonian-speaking children into groups or classes at first, they say there's no money, but in reality, there is funding available — both for these methodological materials and for forming special groups with Estonian-language environments," he claimed.

Kristiina Bernhardt, a junior lecturer at Tallinn University, researches the teaching of Estonian as a second language. She believes thorough monitoring is also lacking.

"We need to understand what's happening with students' language skills and their subject knowledge. Right now, there is no sign of a broad-based study. Through asking various questions and talking with students, or using images or situational prompts, we can find out what a student's language ability is, what kinds of constructions they can use, what kinds of Estonian sentences they use, how complex they are, how extensive their vocabulary is, and whether they can place case endings correctly," Bernhardt said.

Despite all the concerns, the Ministry of Education still considers the first year of the transition a success.

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