Ministry to Launch Discussions on High Schools With Local Authorities
At the beginning of next year, officials from the Ministry of Education will arrange a series of meetings with county authorities to discuss the planned overhaul of the upper secondary school system.
The main point up for discussion will be the proposed separation of gümnaasiums, or upper secondary schools, from junior high schools. The ministry has also proposed putting the state in charge of managing the upper secondary schools, which so far have been run by municipalities, wrote Postimees.
According to Kalle Küttis, undersecretary for general and vocational education at the ministry, county representatives will not be presented with a list of schools the ministry thinks should be up for closure, but instead will be called to share their visions on how to improve the quality of upper secondary education. Küttis, however, did not deny that the ministry had already made its initial selection of schools that should be closed.
Seventy-three percent of the nation's students are currently choosing upper secondary school on completion of the junior high, which according to Küttis is "beyond comprehension," as it is improbable that so many meet the prep school criteria of the gümnaasium.
Currently, 30,000 students are enrolled in over 220 upper secondary schools across the nation. At the same time, a roughly similar total number of students attends just 30 job-training schools.
Ingrid Teesalu