The fourth-grade Estonian language class begins. The students open their textbooks to page 38, where the topic is football tournaments. For three years, this class had primarily studied in Russian; now, they must continue entirely in Estonian. However, the students are doing well. They read slowly, but they are learning. If something is unclear, they ask questions.

Teacher Julia Loodus is making a tremendous effort, but it is not easy. In addition to the existing textbooks, she has created her own materials to make things easier for the students.

"First of all, I have my own worksheets, worksheets that I have put together myself. It takes an enormous amount of time. You sit at home, come up with something, print it out and it's hard. The teaching materials just aren't suitable. The textbooks aren't suitable. They are too difficult. The textbooks are designed for Estonian children, not for Russian or Ukrainian children," said Loodus.

Julia also teaches natural sciences in middle school. The students often don't even know the terminology in their native language.

"The topic was organs and as we talked, every other word was completely unfamiliar. We couldn't understand the sentences. We tried multiple times, but still couldn't manage," Loodus said.

This school year, Estonian-language instruction was launched in the first and fourth grades at 48 schools.

When Anna started first grade in the fall, her mother, Anastassia, had a major fear — how would her daughter cope if they spoke Russian at home but she had to learn in Estonian? During the first few months, Anna rarely spoke at school. But in December, her teacher reported that Anna was already speaking Estonian and was confident enough to ask questions.

"The fear was much bigger in my own mind, like 'Oh my God, what's going to happen,' but in reality, everything has gone well. At first, she didn't understand all the words, but little by little she's learning and her vocabulary is growing. We also try to speak Estonian at home and it's all coming together gradually."

Despite this progress, Estonian language lessons remain Anna's least favorite subject, though she does have favorites, including physical education, mathematics and Russian language.

It turns out that the transition is much easier in first grade than in fourth. Minister of Education Kristina Kallas (Eesti 200) said that the change has been significant for everyone — schools have had to overhaul their curricula and replace many teachers, while parents have had to adjust to a different language.

"For the child, it's actually not hard. I think the idea that it's difficult for children is more about parents projecting their own fears onto them, especially with first-graders. It's not hard for them, it's just different," said Kallas.

However, Kallas emphasized that if it's hard for the teacher, it becomes hard for the students as well. Therefore, based on the first year's experience, it is clear that teachers in particular need much more support.

"Teachers need significantly more support than they have received so far in this process — methodological support, training support and counseling support. We need to develop additional methodological materials for teachers. Although we have created descriptions of how the learning process should be conducted in transition classes, teachers also need practical didactic guidance. We realize we need to do that. We will likely need a lot more counseling support for teachers," Kallas said.

Researchers who have studied the transition say these issues should have been considered before the reform began. Publicly, no one wants to admit it, but off-camera, several experts acknowledge that among the classes that switched to Estonian-language instruction, there are children for whom the transition is so difficult that their education will remain incomplete.

To make the transition easier for children, more and more Russian-speaking parents are enrolling their children in Estonian-language schools. However, education scientist Tiiu Kuurme believes that the growing number of mixed-language classes is not a good development.

"When a teacher has an unlimited number of non-native speakers in the classroom — and in Tallinn and already in Ida-Viru County, the majority are non-native speakers — how do you expect the teacher to manage? I think it would be a miracle if neither the Estonian nor the Russian-speaking children ended up with gaps in their education," said Kuurme.

A major issue has also been the shortage of teachers. In Ida-Viru County, some teachers had to leave their positions due to insufficient Estonian language skills and replacements were recruited from across Estonia. Some were career changers. For example, Arle-Martin Kuura, a construction engineer from Tallinn, became a mathematics teacher in Narva. Both professions require problem-solving skills and as Kuura himself said, the difference now is simply that it is more social.

"I think a big part of what makes this interesting is that if you treat students humanely and they are no longer afraid of the teacher or the subject, they become braver about trying things and mathematics actually becomes quite interesting. And if you can demonstrate things visually or add a bit of humor or clowning around, it really resonates. You can go a long way with a healthy sense of humor," Kuura said.

And although the Estonian language skills of Narva students vary widely, their teacher has great faith in them.

"The most important thing is to give students a chance. If you constantly scare them by saying how hard everything is and that it's impossible, they will start believing that they can't manage and that everything is too difficult. But if you tell them that they're doing more or less fine, that everything is actually okay, then I think the vast majority will keep up quite well," Kuura added.

But what do the students themselves think about Estonian?

"Estonian is a beautiful and simple language," said Zakari. "I like it too. It's a very simple and beautiful language," Vova added.

"If I'm going to live here, I need Estonian. I will speak Estonian. Later, when I go to work, I will speak Estonian there too," noted Arina.

Altogether, there are 48 schools where first and fourth grades switched to Estonian-language instruction this year.

The majority of these schools are located in Tallinn and Ida-Viru County — 20 in Tallinn and 17 in the cities and towns of Ida-Viru County. The remaining 11 schools are spread across other parts of Estonia.

This year, nearly 4,000 students are studying in the first and fourth grades at these schools. Next year, new first and fourth grades will join the program, but the exact number of students is still unknown, as many families with a different mother tongue have decided to enroll their children in regular Estonian-language schools.

This school year, students with a different mother tongue made up 15.5 percent of first-grade classes in Estonian-language schools. Across first to ninth grades as a whole, the percentage is 11. The higher share in the younger grades shows that more and more parents are choosing Estonian-language schools for their children. Among students with a different mother tongue, Russian-speaking children form the majority, but nearly 70 different native languages are represented overall.

According to a recent public opinion survey commissioned by the Government Office, 72 percent of Estonian residents believe that the transition to Estonian-language education offers all children in Estonia an equal opportunity to acquire a quality education in Estonian. Among Estonians, the vast majority agree with this view, while among residents of other nationalities, there are still more who disagree than agree.

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