New school year in Estonia starts on Monday
More than 160,000 pupils are starting the new academic year in Estonian schools on Monday, with over 17,000 teachers sharing their knowledge with them.
The school year always starts on September 1, which this year happens to fall on a Monday.
Around 14,000 children will be starting in first grade alone. Two of these, Mirjam and Karl Gustav, in fact already started their year at the Tartu Katoliku Hariduskeskus, a Catholic school, a week ago.
Things have been going well so far, Mirjam said, calling her new school "beautiful and calm."
Karl Gustav said his brother attended the same school, adding "I like the teacher, because she does not scold and she is also nice."
Mirjam said the first day of school involved bringing flowers to the teacher and finding her allotted place as indicated by a sticker.
"I also liked the morning circle, where you had to say your name and got candy," Karl Gustav added, wishing good luck to all the other schoolchildren embarking on the new school year.
"With great joy and fun and eagerness to learn," Mirjam added.
Things are equally new for those embarking on a new career as a teacher this year. One of these ERR spoke to is Indrek Arumets, who is to start teaching mathematics and programming at the Kanepi Gümnaasium, a high school in Põlva County.
"Earlier I worked as a software developer. I felt that it somehow got monotonous and the days began to be repetitive there. Since my partner is also a teacher, I had seen this work from the sidelines and it seemed quite exciting – every day brings something new, you give something back to society and you can also develop yourself together with the students," Arumets said of his career move choice.
Helena Liis Paavel, a new maths teacher at the Ilmatsalu Basic School, said that the large workload does not discourage her, as there is much to be said for pooling resources and know-how with other teachers.
"Even some small collectives can gather together, or several schools could, for example, form some groups of teachers of a certain subject. You do not have to struggle with all worksheets or tests alone, you can always cooperate," Paavel said.
Both the new, young teachers conceded they did not pick the profession due to its salary but, Paavel pointed out, now she is working at a school herself, she does view the situation differently in terms of how much teachers are valued in society.
"Teachers could indeed be valued more. In fact we transform so much in the lives of little people, young people. We carry this responsibility," she said.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte, Urmet Kook
