Only 5 out of the 50 teachers in Narva who registered for the Estonian language exam passed. A third did not take the exam. The teachers who do not meet the language requirements must now leave the school and new ones are being sought. Narva Municipality says it should have no problems finding new teachers, as there are plenty of people willing to learn Estonian to the required level. However, there are some questions over the professional skills of newer teachers.

"In other words, we are getting rid of people with a lot of teaching experience and strong subject knowledge, and replacing them with a very large number of people who actually do not have a great deal of teaching experience or perhaps even none at all. It is as if we are starting from scratch with education in Narva," said Mayor Katri Raik.

The overwhelming majority of the teachers leaving their jobs could have spent a few more years teaching with Russian as the language of instruction. Their departures speed up the transition to teaching in Estonian in Narva.

"All in all, if we can no longer find teachers who can teach in Russian, we will have to switch to teachers who can teach in Estonian. We have come to this unexpected, though actually expected, situation whereby it is easier to find people who can teach in Estonian," Raik said.

The employment contracts of the teachers who failed the language exam will expire in August. The Unemployment Insurance Fund (Töötukassa) believes the teachers will have the chance to either return to school or find another job while improving their level of Estonian.

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