On Tuesday, the Ministry of Education and Research announced that applications for secondary education by graduating basic school students will take place this spring via the old SAIS2 admissions platform or through other systems selected by individual schools. The reason: the ministry failed to complete the new nationwide admissions system, SAIS3, in time.

According to Tarmo Loodus, director of Viljandi Vocational Training Center (VIKK), school leaders already suspected SAIS3 wouldn't be ready this year.

"For vocational schools, switching back from SAIS3 to SAIS2 isn't a major issue — we've been using SAIS2 for years," Loodus said. "But it's a problem for general education schools that have never used SAIS2 and have been relying on other platforms. It means all the preparations made since fall have essentially been wasted."

Ott Ojaveer, director of Hugo Treffner High School and the coordinator of the joint entrance exams for Tartu high schools this year, said they are currently in talks with the Stuudium platform, which has hosted entrance exams in the past.

Ojaveer added that clarity on how the Tartu joint exams will proceed should come by next Wednesday — just five weeks before the admissions period begins.

Loodus noted that there's at least one upside to scrapping the SAIS3 rollout.

"At the end of the day, there's finally recognition that we must not experiment with children. Things need to be ready on time, carefully thought through, with risk assessments done and crisis scenarios discussed so that if something happens, we know how to respond," he said.

However, Loodus said a bigger issue facing vocational education is the complete lack of approved national curricula as of Thursday. School leaders, he said, still had no indication of when they might be finalized.

"These national curricula are what we need in order to create our school-level programs and register them with the ministry and the Estonian Education Information System. We'll probably have two or three weeks to do that now. It's all very rushed and chaotic," Loodus explained.

The new curricula were, in fact, approved by ministerial decree on Thursday. Starting next academic year, 32 new vocational programs will be introduced.

However, due to the extensive documentation involved, schools are finding it nearly impossible to prepare their own curricula in time. According to Loodus, the implementation guides for some programs exceed 500 pages.

Loodus also pointed out a further concern: the new preparatory year adds pressure on students who don't gain admission to regular programs.

"We've essentially created a system where a student has to fail first before they can enter the preparatory year," he said.

That means students are only directed to the so-called second path after being rejected, usually by municipal youth workers.

Loodus warned that the reform has a discouraging effect on young people's mental health and places additional strain on local governments.

Starting from the next academic year, young people in Estonia will be obligated to stay in education until the age of 18 but will no longer be required to resit basic school exams. However, new draft legislation aims to give those who fail to enroll at a high school or vocational education institution after graduating from basic school access to preparatory classes aimed at fostering continued studies.

Local governments short on resources

Robert Lippin, education adviser at the Association of Estonian Cities and Municipalities, said the organization supports the ministry's overall goal. However, he acknowledged that the proposed system will impose a significant and time-sensitive burden on local governments during the summer and early fall.

"Right now, no one can accurately predict the workload because it depends on the number of young people, the quality of the data and how quickly contact can be made with them to identify a suitable educational path," Lippin added.

One of the biggest concerns for municipalities is the process of directing students into new fields of study.

"If the state fails to ensure functional data exchange, sufficient resources and learning opportunities, there's a risk that the already thin support network won't withstand peak demand and some young people will ultimately be left without the help they need," said Lippin.

Ministry sees no cause for concern

According to Alo Savi, head of the vocational education and skills policy department at the Ministry of Education and Research, the SAIS3 platform will create a nationwide admissions environment that, in his view, will simplify the process for everyone involved.

"A student will no longer have to log into different systems, fill out various forms and so on. All application options will be available on a single platform," he said.

Savi stated that the transition to SAIS3 will happen only once the system is fully reliable even under heavy user traffic and user-friendly. The ministry has now set September 2026 as the target date for its rollout.

He disagreed with Loodus's assessment that directing students into preparatory programs adds stress.

"If a student hasn't found a suitable school or hasn't been accepted by May or June, they can apply for the preparatory program during the summer," Savi explained.

"Students can also be admitted into the preparatory program after the regular admissions period ends, throughout the academic year. The entire purpose of the preparatory year is to provide support, guidance and empowerment so that students can find a learning path that fits them," he added.

Savi confirmed that the ministry does not offer financial support to municipalities. As a result, the workload for the already limited number of municipal youth officers will increase significantly.

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