Third of Russian-language school students failed to reach required Estonian level
A study by the Ministry of Education found that a third of pupils at Russian-language primary schools in Estonia fail to reach B1.
That means a third of students do not have a sufficient command of Estonian to study in Estonian on the secondary-school level.
The ministry is planning to spend 11 million euros from 2015-2020 on fixing the problem with a number of projects launched. These include better training for teachers, renewing study material, additional help for schools lagging behind, student exchange programs and organizing common events with ethnic Estonian pupils and summer language camps and courses.
“The Estonian language is a social skill which all students have to master already by the end of primary school (up to and including 9th grade). The skill is needed to provide young people the ability to compete on the job market and wide possibilities to continue studies,” Education Minister Jevgeni Ossinovski said.
Editor: J.M. Laats