Schools to Get Incentives for Widening Estonian Curriculum
Expanding a program it piloted last year, the Ministry of Education and Research will be paying Russian-curriculum high schools a bonus of about 4,500 euros for each academic subject they teach in Estonian beyond the current minimum set down by law.
Russian-language high schools, which cover the non-obligatory 10th-12th grades, are required to teach four subjects in the state language this academic year: Estonian literature, Estonian history, social studies and music. The majority, however, also offer other subjects such as math, chemistry, art and physical education in Estonian.
The bonus money is meant to pay for teacher training, extra materials, extracurricular activities and the like. It is capped at 32,000 euros per school, and is not available to Russian-language primary schools, where study in Estonian is voluntary.
The ministry's 582,000 euro budget for the project is expected to be divided among 48 schools.
A legacy of Soviet times, Estonia has traditionally had separate high school curricula catering to Estonian and Russian-speaking cultures. Beginning in the 2011/2012 school year, Russian-curriculum high schools are required to teach 60 percent of their material in Estonian, a reform that has met with mixed reaction.