The changes follow a chaotic admissions season this year, when nearly 1,900 basic school graduates still weren't enrolled in either high school or a vocational school a week before the new school year began.

While each school will continue to set its own admission requirements, for the coming admissions cycle, high schools and vocational schools across the country will follow a common schedule. Students will apply through SAIS, Estonia's unified admissions information system, ranking their school choices by preference.

SAIS was also supposed to handle admissions this year, but the plan was scrapped in February after problems with the latest version, SAIS3. Kallas said the system has since undergone load testing, and schools can now practice entering their admission requirements ahead of time in a test environment.

"We're currently working on developing the preference system's functionality," she said, adding that the full system will open for schools in January.

Next spring, students can apply to schools from March 29 through May 18. Estonia's system will allow students to apply to any number of schools, though the minister acknowledged that unlimited choices can make the process confusing for kids.

The possibility of setting a limit, she said, warrants broader public discussion. Ranking preferences, however, will also help schools identify applicants who have placed them first.

"They can, for example, start interviews with those who listed the school as their top choice and don't have to interview everyone," Kallas said.

Chance to change application

Another change will allow students to review and adjust their preferences after receiving their basic school exam results. Exam results will be entered into the Estonian Education Information System (EHIS) on May 17, and students will have one day to revise their applications before schools begin making offers.

"We wanted to give them three days, but school principals weren't on board with that, so we're giving them one," the minister said.

Schools must begin making their admissions offers by June 11, with the main admissions round running through July 2. Kallas urged students to accept offers promptly so that enrollment does not remain tied up while other applicants wait.

"The problem this year was that very strong students received admissions offers from several schools and took a long time to accept one," she explained. While others received rejections right away, many students in between waited in limbo and uncertainty over the summer.

The minister said schools should keep rolling admissions going in July to avoid a repeat.

Admissions to end earlier

Following an interim review by July 5 to identify remaining vacancies, rolling admissions must begin no later than July 15 and will end August 23, a week earlier than this year. All students not yet accepted to a high school or vocational school will then be able to reapply for remaining spots on equal terms.

"That's a week earlier, so kids won't have to wait as long for schools to make their decisions," Kallas said.

She acknowledged the earlier cutoff may mean shorter summer vacations for teachers, but urged schools to rotate staff vacations so admissions can be completed on time. Teachers' total number of vacation days, she added, will not change.

The education minister said the longer-term goal is to automate as much of the admissions process as possible, reducing the workload on teachers. She pointed to Finland, where students can rank up to seven schools and an algorithm handles much of the matching, issuing offers automatically.

"Everything is settled within a month and teachers don't have an endless stream of lists and interviews to handle," Kallas said.

The new SAIS3 system is also intended to make rolling admissions easier for students by showing enrollment availability all in one spot.

This means that instead of having to call around to various schools individually to find out if they are still accepting more students, applicants will be able to see a consolidated list of schools that still have spots available for new students.

--

Follow ERR News on Facebook and X and never miss an update!