Administrative language rules to become clearer
The Ministry of Education and Research aims to better regulate the administrative language of universities and municipalities through amendments to the Language Act, seeking to avoid situations where dealing with a university or municipality would require the use of a foreign language.
The amendment to the law would affect public legal entities, such as universities. Similarly, the ministry highlights the administrative language of local municipalities.
The ministry notes that as of the previous academic year, 12 percent of academic staff held foreign citizenship.
The ministry clarifies that foreign citizenship does not necessarily imply a lack of proficiency in Estonian. However, the amendment aims to prevent situations where a student whose native language is Estonian has to conduct university business in a foreign language.
Kätlin Kõverik from the Ministry of Education told ERR that while it's not accurate to say that the situation in universities is out of control, this issue needs attention and some future-proofing. "Above all, it ensures that our students are not put in a position where they have to handle university matters in a foreign language," she added.
At the University of Tartu, the administrative language is regulated internally.
"For the University of Tartu, this doesn't seem to be a problem, as we have an established administrative procedure that states the university's administrative language is Estonian, and there are five specific areas where documents must always be in Estonian," said Helika Mäekivi from the University of Tartu.
Currently, local municipalities are required by law to conduct administrative affairs in Estonian. However, there have been instances in Narva and Maardu where council meetings have been conducted in Russian, or some documents are not entirely in Estonian. The new plan is to regulate this in the Language Act as well.
According to Veiko Luhalaid, head of the Association of Estonian Cities and Municipalities, the Language Act would complement the Local Government Organization Act.
"As for the administrative language, it is Estonian in local government institutions, but when it comes to the organizations the latter oversee..." Luhalaid noted. "The purpose of the regulations in the Language Act as a sectoral law is to clarify those areas set out in the higher-level law and explain them."
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Editor: Marcus Turovski
