The school in Kopli, Põhja-Tallinn, is owned by the City of Tallinn and has 894 students. Of these, 676 pupils study in the basic school and 218 in the high school. Sixty percent of children do not speak Estonian as their mother tongue.  

The Ministry of Education inspected the education establishment in December 2025, focusing on Estonian language teaching and teachers' qualifications.

The report showed that only 32 of the 96 teachers and educational staff held the correct qualifications. This means more than two-thirds – 67 – did not meet the required standard.

There were also issues with Estonian language teaching. Less than 60 percent of classes are taught in the national language, as required by law.

Statistics from the EHIS education database show 1,463 lessons are taught each week at Tallinn Art Gymnasium, of which 463 — or 31 percent — are taught by qualified teachers, and 1,000 by teachers without the required qualifications. The issue was particularly severe in the first stage of school, where only 19 percent of lessons were taught by qualified teachers.

Additionally, the curriculum does not fully comply with the law or national curricula and needs to be expanded; the school lacks a speech therapist; there is confusion over timetables, the curriculum is not fully displayed on the website; and the school board and the teachers' council have failed to fulfill their roles.

Sults: More clarity needed

Commenting on the results to ERR, school director Mari-Liis Sults said the inspectors requested greater clarification to meet existing regulations, but did not criticize the school or stop it from carrying out its activities.

She said the school has been a flagship of educational innovation in Estonia for the past 10 years, and the practices it pilots are shared with other education establishments through the ministry.

"Innovation is inherently difficult, because legislation does not adapt quickly enough to the needs of everyday life and changing student needs. /.../ This is how implementing change works — someone has to go first, and then others find the courage and opportunity to follow," Sults said.

Around a quarter of the ministry's requests will be implemented by February 1, the director said.

"The deadlines set by the ministry are realistic and achievable, because we are not changing anything in our day-to-day school life or management; we are simply describing in greater detail, within the curriculum, what is already taking place in the school," she said.

Kante: Sults is implementing the changes

Tallinn Deputy Mayor Andrei Kante (Center) told ERR the Ministry of Education almost always finds numerous shortcomings during its inspections.

Most of Tallinn Art Gymnasium's deadlines for improvements fall in the coming months, but it is reasonable to give teachers without the correct qualifications more time, he said.

Other education facilities in Tallinn also employ teachers without the required qualifications, but the percentage varies, Kante added.

"We're doing our best to ensure that in all our schools, the majority of teachers are qualified. The [Tallinn] Education Department likely has an overview of how much the new legislative amendment, which came into force this January, will impact the situation. It might even improve things, but we definitely need to make an effort to ensure that in every school the majority of teachers are qualified," Kante said.

While Sults told news portal Delfi she plans to resign from the school, the director is currently still in the role and will lead the changes, he said.

Sults told ERR her next steps are still being formalized.

High staff turnover

Sults does not see qualifications as a big challenge as the average age of teachers at the schools is relatively low. Over the last eight years, the average has fluctuated between 35 and 38 years old.

"The inspection recognized us for the fact that most of the qualified teachers hold a Level 7 teacher's professional qualification. Between the time of the oversight and the issuance of the report, the legislation on teacher qualification requirements changed twice. As a result of these changes, 10 more teachers now meet the qualification requirements, which means that half of our teaching staff is now qualified," she noted.

"We have 28 teachers with various master's degrees who are now motivated to complete the professional teacher qualification through the Teachers' Union this semester. Once they do, they too will meet the qualification requirements. So this directive can be fulfilled within half a year, as the ministry has planned," the director added.

The inspection also highlighted that teacher turnover is excessively high, and as a result, some classes are even canceled.

High school students said they had barely learned anything at all during their history classes due to teachers coming and going. Basic school students said mathematics is particularly problematic as teachers change frequently.

At the same time, the school has as many as nine heads of studies. Sults said this is because the school has no separate activity coordinators, development managers, or other administrative positions. This means everyone serves as a head of studies.

"Each one leads their own group of teachers — up to 12 — and is responsible for their subject area. Simply put, we do not waste time on fluff at our school; all activities are tied to achieving curriculum learning outcomes. We have been doing this ourselves for five years already and may not always realize that others need more detailed descriptions to understand these processes. We'll be able to describe these differences by the directive's deadline as well," she said.

Children have weak grasp of Estonian language

Approximately 60 percent of students are non-native speakers. The school has marked 560 students in the EHIS database as having a home language different from the language of instruction. An additional Estonian language course has been assigned to 115 students.

Inspectors observing lessons said students' Estonian language proficiency was relatively weak. In most of the classes visited, students had not developed the habit of conducting their studies in Estonian.

Sults said the issue of Estonian-language instruction among non-native students is not limited to her schools and is part of a larger problem.

"As a leader, I have always aimed to reflect the actual situation. That means we have identified all students who need support and noted both those who receive it and those who do not. Otherwise, the state cannot gather data on whether current funding is sufficient to support students or not. At present, I have received the response that only students who receive support should be marked. This is one directive that is very easy to fulfill and will be done by the deadline. But it does not change the fact that schools lack sufficient personnel and budgetary resources to provide adequate additional Estonian language support to non-native students," she said.

At the same time, the proportion of students at the school who achieved B1 level in the Estonian as a second language basic school exam between 2019 and 2024 is significantly higher than the average for Tallinn schools at 72 percent, compared with 53 percent.

School board exists, but only formally

While the law requires every school to have a school board with a designated structure and responsibilities, Tallinn Art Gymnasium's board had major deficiencies.

Sults explained to inspectors that the school does not have an actively functioning school board and that she personally handles the coordination of documents with the board.

School board members said that although the board's composition was elected at the beginning of September, no meetings have taken place this academic year, and they do not have an elected chair.

One board member noted that they had not been invited to a school board meeting for the second academic year in a row, and that in their view the director had not fulfilled the obligation set by the school's operator to convene the first board meeting.

It was pointed out that this is the only school in the area where the board does not meet.

Student development interviews are also inadequately conducted. The inspection found no evidence that all students had participated in a development interview once per year. In the case of some students, no interview had taken place for two years.

There are also problems with school facilities, an issue Sults additionally raised. Half of the rooms do not meet the requirements of the rescue and health authorities, and some parents have said they intend to call the Health Board.

This is also cited in the oversight report as one reason for the high turnover of teachers at the school.

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