Narva City Council will send three requests to the Estonian government this Thursday. Two concern children with special educational needs in schools and kindergartens. Namely to ease the transition to Estonian-language education and allow the possibility for those children to continue studying partly in Russian over the next academic year. The law does not prevent this.

The third request is for permission to allow Russian-language teaching in those basic school classes that will not switch to Estonian as the only language of instruction next year. The law also allows for this procedure.

There are no currently plans to ask for an extension to the transition period. According to Aleksei Jevgrafov (Center), chair of Narva City Council's ruling coalition group "Narva," there were no plans to do so. However, the issue will be revisited in early March when the city government will complete another review of teachers' needs.

"And if it turns out that the problem is serious, and that we might face a shortage of teachers in classes, then we may propose the alternative of allowing teachers another year to take their exams. But we will not resist or obstruct the government and the ministry. Our thinking is, that this transition has to be a reality, but not in such a way that means our children suffer from it," said Jevgrafov.

The teacher shortage is considered particularly acute in kindergartens, which will all switch to Estonian as the only language of instruction this fall. However, according to Katri Raik, a member of the "Respekt" group in Narva City Council, there are plenty of suitably qualified teachers in Narva.

"We have 113 teachers in Narva, who are not working in schools, who have teaching qualifications. But unfortunately, to do this, we will have to lay off teachers we currently have and recruit new ones. We also have to look for more teachers. Let's be honest, current salaries are attractive enough to encourage people back to kindergartens or schools. But you see, now these positions have been occupied, and these people have nowhere to go back to," Raik explained.

According to Raik, the transition in Narva could happen much faster than the law requires

"The question is whether the transition to Estonian shouldn't be faster in at least one school, so that education meets the expectations of parents. We can't just think about our Russian-language teachers, we also have to consider the interests and preferences of parents and children. Everyone in Estonia has the right to receive an education in Estonian."

As of last September, a third of teachers in Narva's kindergartens did not meet the Estonian language requirements to facilitate the transition. Those schools now have new teachers in place ahead of the transition.

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