The Aruküla põhikool, 20 kilometers from Tallinn, set up the streams for the new academic year and was required by the justice chancellor's office to change back to a non-segregated system by last Friday, but is going ahead with it.

Classes at the Aruküla school are divided into streams based on grade average, with the highest stream comprising children with a grade average of at least 4.2 (out of 5) in one class, and two smaller classes for children with lower averages.

This had already been done from 9th grade onward, from the new academic year starting in 7th grade.

In the opinion of the Chancellor of Justice, forming level classes based on academic performance also constitutes labeling and generally harms a child's self-esteem. The school is required to follow the principle of inclusive education, meaning that students with differing needs have the right to study together.

Senior adviser to the Chancellor of Justice, Atko-Madis Tammar said: "If we are talking about small classes, then we are talking about a special class, and when we talk about smaller groups, then we are talking about level groups, and these have their own requirements. But when we talk about dividing students into classes or groups based on average grades, then the law does not provide for this. It is not possible to deduce the need for student support from grade averages," he said.

Aruküla school director Avo Möls said that the system was planned to be tailor-made to students.

"In this way, it is viable to provide all students with a learning environment suited to their abilities and perhaps to remove certain distractions from the class. In addition, it gives all students, not just, as under the law, those with special needs, but also regular students, the opportunity to work in a calmer environment," he said.

Möls claimed the practice has existed in Estonian schools for years, adding that since three-quarters of parents have said they are satisfied with the decision, his school is reluctant to abandon the system.

There is a wide range of grade averages seen at the Aruküla school he went on.

"I can only guess why the seventh graders have started to study so well. If one student gets an average grade of 3.86 – and that was the lowest – then I don't know whether we teachers are overestimating them, or they really are that good and there was no need to divide them, but when we started with this, the averages ranged from 1.54 to 5.0," Möls said.

The Chancellor of Justice had given the school until Friday, August 29, to bring its curriculum into compliance with the law.

According to Tammar, the school's response demonstrates that they do not agree with the position of the Chancellor of Justice, and since the chancellor's position is advisory, the ball is now in the Ministry of Education's court.

Ministry of Education adviser Mare Tamm said answers to clarifying questions are now awaited, adding further decisions will be made after the necessary information has been received and the situation has been comprehensively analyzed, in conjunction with the justice chancellor's office.

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