Cambridge English exam no longer free of charge in Estonia from summer 2027
While Estonia's mandatory high school English exam can be replaced with an international one, the Cambridge or CAE exam will no longer be free of charge starting 2027.
One of the most popular choices has been to replace the national English exam with the Cambridge English Advanced (CAE) exam. Estonia currently still has a procurement contract in place that has allowed students to take the CAE exam free of charge. However, the contract expires in the summer of 2027 and there are no plans to extend it.
"We will not sign a new procurement contract. Instead, we will return to the system that was in place before the contract where everyone who needs to take the Cambridge exam will still have access to it, but it will be paid," said Ülle Matsin, head of the general and vocational education department at the Ministry of Education and Research.
According to Matsin, the decision is tied to budget cuts — the five-year procurement contract period cost just over €1.9 million.
"In recent years, we have had to make very difficult budget-cutting decisions. Fourteen percent of students said in feedback that taking the exam had been beneficial to them. Among them, there are probably somewhat fewer students who actually need the language certificate in order to continue their studies at an international university," Matsin said.
At Tartu Jaan Poska High School, for example, fewer than half of graduating students took the national English exam this year, while most took the CAE exam, already in 11th grade. According to principal Mari Roostik, the end of the free CAE exam option will also affect high schools' ability to organize the national English exam.
"The Ministry of Education and Research should conduct a proper analysis here. Our school has 200 students, but we are creating state high schools with 350 students. How will they manage to organize the oral exam within such a short period of time if there are no basic school teachers available to help? It will certainly become extremely complicated if the CAE is no longer available from 2028," Roostik predicted.
According to Matsin, there will continue to be opportunities in the future to spread out exam takers, meaning students who wish to do so can take the national English exam already in 11th grade.
"We are also developing our exams so that when we transition to e-exams, there could also be a winter session. That is a matter for the future, but it is certainly one option."
Matsin added that the share of students taking other international exams will likely increase as well.
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Editor: Urmet Kook, Marcus Turovski
