Language Requirements Need A Overhaul, Minister Says
The Ministry of Education and Research has sent a bill on language requirements for approval to other ministries, proposing a change in Estonian language requirements that are currently impossible to meet.
Employers can demand a C2 level knowledge of Estonian from their employees, but there are no exams held for C2 level in Estonia. Therefore, the employees are unable to prove their language skills on that level, the ministry said in a press release today.
According to Minister of Education Jevgeni Ossinovski the situation is unacceptable, as people are faced with requirements that cannot be met.
“Artificially high and almost impossible-to-meet requirements are in violation of the principle of equal treatment and also one of the reasons why Russian-speaking people are seriously underrepresented in the public sector,” Ossinovski said.
The bill aims to solve this problem by allowing the employer to demand language skills relevant to the job and not above level C1 (effective operational proficiency).