Education Minister Scores 99% in Citizenship Language Exam
The Education Minister, Jevgeni Ossinovski, who is an ethnic Russian, scored 99 percent in an Estonian language exam required for citizenship, saying he wanted to test if it was too difficult for foreigners.
Ossinovski scored maximum points in the written, hearing and speaking parts, and just missing out on maximum points in the reading section of the test.
Last year, Eesti Päevaleht journalist Rein Sikk took the exam and scored 89 points out of a hundred - not a stellar result for a native speaker who writes for a living. Sikk pointed out the confusing and contradictory instructions and tasks, and also said appealing the results has been made very complicated.
According to his article from March last year, Estonia’s exam for C1 level language skills is one of the most difficult in Europe with its 66 percent failure rate (compared to 45 percent in Latvia and 16 percent in Poland).