A minimum requirement of B2, or vantage, proficiency in Estonian under the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) was implemented for all teachers back in 2011 already.

Two years ago, August 1, 2024 was set as the deadline after which schools may no longer conclude employment contracts with teachers that do not meet this requirement. This transition period, however, didn't take into account the situation at Estonia's international schools, where the majority of foreign teachers do their daily work in English.

"Our faculty must be proficient in English to at least the C1 [advanced], C2 [mastery] level, and we don't use Estonian in our work at all – not in teaching, not in administrative tasks, not in training, nowhere," explained Audentes International School principal Anneliis Kõiv. "So this raises an awful lot of questions and puts us in a difficult position."

According to Kõiv, foreign-language teachers fall under the Aliens Act, which is a bit of a gray area unto itself, as international qualifications differ from Estonia's. Their chief concern is why a foreign teacher should be required to be that proficient in Estonian if they aren't teaching the language to their students.

Teachers at Tallinn European School (TES) agree, working at an educational institution aimed primarily at offering an education to children of the international community and whose curriculum is set at the EU level.

"We feel that, by enforcing this rule, the ministry is going against the EU regulation of free movement of workers, and the part that actually very clearly says you cannot discriminate against foreigners for a position based on a language," said Gerry Massa, an English teacher at TES.

"And none of the other European Schools have this requirement – from Brussels to Frankfurt to Spain, and so on," he added.

Estonia's education minister admitted that the state has not sufficiently verified compliance with the language proficiency requirement, which is why this requirement, due to enter into force in less than six months' time, caught schools so off-guard.

Even so, she disagrees with the notion that foreign-language teachers don't come in contact with the local linguistic space.

"All other conditions imposed on a school nonetheless apply under Estonian law," Kallas noted. "Among them, teacher qualifications, maintenance and health requirements for school buildings and classrooms as well as all other requirements are based on the laws of each [EU] member state. What distinguishes them is the curriculum they are allowed to teach."

She declined to say that language proficiency requirements should be relaxed, as hoped by foreign teachers. Nonetheless, the ministry is slated to meet with various parties in the coming weeks to discuss these schools' needs as well as possible special conditions.

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