The city government favors a quicker transition, while the board at the Pärnu Tammsaare kool prefers a more gradual approach.

While both options foresee a transition to Estonian-language education for grades 1–4, the board wishes to keep one set of initial classes fully in Estonian. It also wants the language immersion classes in lower secondary education to retain their current model.

This model sees not only Russian language to native speaker classes, but also physical education classes, taught entirely in Russian, to native Russian-speaking pupils, through to the end of junior high (Põhikool), the mandatory part of secondary education in Estonia.

School director Riho Alliksoo told AK the rationale was staffing issues in being able to hire a sufficient number of Estonian-language teachers in a short space of time.

The city government's wish is however that no exceptions be made for any of the initial classes, and that the lower secondary school language immersion classes completely transition to Estonian from the start of the next academic year.

Ene Täht, Deputy Mayor of Pärnu (Isamaa), told AK that it will be this fast-track option which will likely be the one that gets used.

Täht said: "At this moment in time I can confidently state that we can calmly proceed with the so-called Plan B outlined in this action plan, meaning in the accelerated transition of the language immersion classes to Estonian-language education."

Despite the difficulties in finding Estonian-speaking teachers, the city supports the teaching of Estonian to existing teachers, and has also made specific proposals to the school on how to accelerate the transition, Täht added.

The Ministry of Education and Research had waited until the end of March for local governments to submit their own plans for transitioning to Estonian-language education, with most of the 19 municipalities which needed to submit a plan having by now done so.

Pärnu Tammsaare kooli is the only Russian-language school in the city, and has over 500 pupils enrolled. The immersion program has been in place for many years, AK reported.

In fact, Riho Alliksoo noted that the school had been tasked with conducting a competitive process to find an Estonian-speaking physical education teacher who could teach their subject in a second language, meaning Russian.

The final decision option will be pursued is set to be determined at a Pärnu City Council session next month.

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