The Tallinn Education Department is currently collecting applications from school boards of trustees that wish to continue starting classes before 9 a.m. Schools must submit their applications by June 12.

"As of Tuesday, we have received fewer than 20 applications, but I believe more will come in," said Krista Keedus, head of the Education Department's education management division. Tallinn has 60 municipal schools in total.

Most schools are seeking start times of 8:30 a.m. or 8:45 a.m., though a couple of schools want to begin at 8 a.m. Each application will be assessed individually and must be justified. If a school has clear and well-considered reasons for starting earlier, those circumstances will be taken into account when decisions are made, Keedus explained.

According to Keedus, schools have cited a variety of reasons. "One reason, for example, is that a school operates in two shifts — a morning shift and an afternoon shift. Another is that the start of the school day is staggered by grade level, which may be necessary to spread out lunch breaks and better accommodate students," she said.

Keedus noted that a later school start does not simply mean classes begin later; changes must be made to the entire daily schedule. "There is now also a requirement for outdoor recess and a longer lunch break. In addition, so-called full-day schools have different needs," the official said.

She also pointed out that in Tallinn and its surrounding areas, there are places where staggered school start times help reduce traffic congestion. "The Transport Administration has also drawn attention to this," Keedus said.

One such area is the Pirita, Merivälja and Viimsi region where schools have partly based their decisions on avoiding traffic jams and therefore begin the school day at different times.

Tallinn Merivälja School has decided to move its start time from the current 8 a.m. to 8:45 a.m. According to principal Greta Henriksson, the change was proposed by the board of trustees and was also supported by the results of a school survey.

"Our main concern is traffic management. There is no city bus route that stops directly at the school and younger children are brought to school by car or on our school bus. Since the schools in nearby Pirita and Viimsi have been starting at 9 a.m. for a second year, if we start earlier, there are not such large traffic jams on Pirita tee and the Mähe-Pärnamäe roads because everyone is traveling in the same direction — toward the city center," Henriksson said.

The school's leadership understands the Ministry of Education regulation to mean that, with the approval of the board of trustees, schools may reconsider their start time each year, including requesting an exemption to begin earlier than 9 a.m. That is what they intend to do.

"We will conduct another survey halfway through the year to see how transportation to and from the school has worked. We will certainly also ask how students are doing and make new decisions based on that analysis," Henriksson said.

Pirita Economic High School switched to a 9 a.m. start in the current academic year.

"We were well prepared for it. We discussed it with all stakeholder groups in the school and 70 percent of respondents preferred a 9 a.m. start," principal Toomas Pikhof said.

The school is very satisfied with the decision to start later because staff have observed positive changes among students.

"A year has now passed and we can say that starting later is extremely positive. Students are able to engage in meaningful discussions already during the first class period — something that wasn't the case when classes began at 8:10 a.m.," Pikhof said.

He said he has not noticed any transportation-related problems.

"Everything has been smooth in that regard," he said.

Viimsi School, which also moved to a 9 a.m. start this academic year, redesigned its entire daily schedule to make the transition smoother and prevent the school day from becoming too long for students.

"We changed the length of class periods. Our classes now last 80 minutes, which means there are fewer breaks," principal Peeter Sipelgas said.

Government Regulation No. 52, adopted in July 2025, states that beginning with the 2026/2027 academic year, classes at general education schools will generally start at 9 a.m. or later. Earlier start times are permitted only in exceptional cases and for serious reasons, based on mutual agreement between the school and its operator. The ministry does not plan to monitor schools' start times directly but expects the regulation to be followed.

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