Narva city government requests year's deferment on Estonian-language education transition

Authorities in the Eastern town of Narva say they are considering appealing to the government to postpone transitioning to education solely in the Estonian language by a year, on the grounds that the city is finding it hard to recruit a sufficient number of adequate teachers.
Aleksei Jevgrafov (pictured), who is a Riigkogu MP sitting with the Center Party but is also, with the complexities of Narva politics in mind, chair of the coalition "Narva" faction, said: "The first and fourth grades should switch to Estonian as a language of instruction from September."
"However, in order for the remaining grades to continue studying in Russian for the meantime, the city needs to make the corresponding appeal to the ministry," Jevgrafov went on, speaking to ERR's Russian-language channel ETV+.
"My hope is that this will be accepted at Thursday's city council session on Thursday," Jevgrafov continued.
The city would like the transition to last until the 2028-2029 academic year, he added.
Furthermore, city authorities may ask for an extension in relation to Russian-language education from children with special needs, at all ages.
Jevgrafov said that of 400 teachers working in Narva schools at present, 150 do not reach the minimum language requirements, while for kindergartens, the figure is 95 out of 261 teachers.
Whereas in kindergartens, the bulk of those who hold Estonian language skills at B2 level in the Common European Framework (CEF) can and do teach in Estonian, in schools, where necessarily language levels will need to be higher, that figure falls to 43 percent.
"We understand, that, unfortunately, not all teachers have passed the C1 exam," he added.
Conversely, the rules bar many people with sufficient levels of Estonian from teaching, eg. because they lack an educational qualification.
The CEF framework runs across six levels, where A1 is the lowest and C2 the highest. C1 is already at proficiency level, compared with the preceding level, B2 (upper intermediate). B1 level (intermediate) is required when applying for Estonian citizenship, but is not of a level high enough to be able to teach in Estonian.
"One option is to request a deferment of at least a year, to enable all teachers to take the language exam," Jevgrafov said.
Additionally, Jevgrafov stated that current methodologies bar children from being taught exclusively in Estonian.
"We fear that if the school reforms are implemented too rapidly, the level of education will drop significantly," Jevgrafov surmised.
Narva's education board has prepared a vision for the transition to Estonian-language education and will submit it to the Ministry of Education and Research at the end of this month, he said.
Narva is predominantly Russian-speaking.
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Editor: Tatjana Gassova, Andrew Whyte, Artur Tooman, Mait Ots
Source: ‘Intervʹju nedeli,’ ETV+