Of the 300 places available on courses at the Ida-Viru County Vocational Education Center this winter, only 170 have been filled. The school had hoped to attract more students from outside Ida-Viru County to enroll on courses this winter.

Marketing manager Virve Linder believes there are several different reasons for the lack of interest.

"In addition to the much-discussed issue of Estonian as the only language instruction, we are also facing the challenge that, as a result of the vocational education reform, there are now also restrictions in place that prevent adult learners from acquiring an unlimited number of different specializations," said Linder.

Another problem is that the population of Ida-Viru County is declining.

"Our great hope was that we would be able to attract Estonian-speaking students from outside Ida-Viru County, but as this winter's admissions period has shown, we still have a lot of work to do in that regard," Linder admitted.

The school still plans to help those whose Estonian language skills are not at the level required to study on its regular courses-

"The goal we have set, is that for those students who do not have sufficient command of Estonian, we will move their elective modules in which Estonian is the language of instruction, as well as their Estonian language lessons, to the beginning of the school year. This will allow them to catch up with their Estonian language skills first," explained Kristi Aron, director of studies at the Ida-Viru Vocational Education Center.

Due to low enrolment, only seven of the 17 study groups that were originally planned to be opened at the center this winter will now go ahead.

In total, over 2,000 students study courses at the Ida-Viru Vocational Education Center across its three premises in Narva, Jõhvi and Sillamäe.

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