The second-tier Tartu Circuit Court has annulled a 2024 decision made by Toila municipality, on the north coast, to close the local school's upper secondary (Gümnaasium) component, meaning it would have continued as a basic school (Põhikool) only. Parents appealed this.

The circuit court at the same time overruled a first-tier administrative court ruling which had upheld the Toila municipality decision.

The administrative court had found that upper secondary schools could be considered Estonian-language provided the language of instruction there is Estonian, regardless of the level of students' language proficiency. The circuit court set a bar on language level, however.

When making the closure nearly two years ago, Toila municipality stated that students could continue their secondary education in state high schools (Riigigümnaasium) in the vicinity. The bulk of students in those state high schools come from Russian-speaking homes, however, something which the circuit court found the municipality should have taken into consideration.

"In fact, the most significant issue was the opportunity for Estonian-speaking children, as it were, to continue their education in a sufficiently Estonian-language and suitable environment. The students' opportunity to continue their educational path in a high-quality high school had not been sufficiently taken into account.

Considering that the three state high schools in the region are largely attended by students with another mother tongue, problems might have arisen," said Tiina Pappel, chair of the Tartu Circuit Court.

In the circuit court's opinion, the municipality also failed to consider the impact that closing a school unit with an Estonian-language school environment would have on the local Estonian-speaking community.

"The impact of this decision on the survival of the Estonian-speaking community in the region had also not been borne in mind. Many of the complainants had moved to that area precisely with the idea of arranging their lives there because the region's only Estonian-language high school was located there, and their complaints also showed that if a decision like that [to close the school unit] were made, they would have considered moving away," Pappel went on.

"In other words, several important circumstances had not been weighed. And since the complainants had also not been heard to a sufficient degree, the circuit court suspected that this may have influenced the final outcome of the decision," she added.

The circuit court found that simplifying subjects due to the school's average language proficiency, or making subject choices dependent on students' language skills, could narrow high school students' options and limit teachers' ability to teach at the required level.

The municipality should therefore have assessed whether the education offered in the proposed state gymnasiums instead of Toila high school served the children's best interests, including their differing language proficiency, the court found.

Estonian schools have been transitioning to Estonian language-only education in recent years; many schools where Russian students were in the majority had taught in Russian.

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