Only Two High Schools in Tallinn to be Renovated
This year, two high schools out of 60 will be renovated in Tallinn, although by next spring the city is hoping to have renovated about 90 percent them.
Tallinn has invested 5 million euros to recondition Tallinn schools. This spring Lasnamäe High School and Mustamäe High School began an overhaul, and classes will resume in the rennovated buildings next spring.
The Deputy Director of the Board of Education, Tanel Keres, told ERR Radio that work is being done in other schools as well. Many schools in Tallinn are currently receiving repairs in order to guarantee fire safety, such as the installation of fireproof doors and other safety equipment.
The city currently has no plan to build new schools buildings, instead it intends to maximize the efficiency of the existing school network. Although, the representative of the Board of Education said that a new high school is in the planning stages in Tallinn.
Keres said it is far too early to say in which building the new high school would be located, but as for optimizing the school network, the new school will be placed taking the current network into account.
The Minister of Education, Jevgeni Ossinovski, said besides county centers having state high schools, Tallinn and its neighboring municipalities should have them as well, and the emphasis should be on the outlying areas.
Ossinoski said they have been in active cooperation with the Tallinn City Administration, and they agree that Tallinn should have as many as two state high schools. The location and project details are still undergoing negations.
The building of new schools is not being planned for the near future. Whether or not a new school building is built for the new state high schools or existing buildings will be used depends on which is financially more sensible. A Tallinn state high school would begin its work as early as 2018.