Small Estonian schools start year with few or no new pupils

Several small schools in Estonia will welcome only a handful of new pupils next week, ERR reports. Municipalities do not currently plan to close them, but reorganisations may be considered within five years.

At Meremäe School in Setomaa, which also houses a kindergarten, 26 pupils attend nine grades. The school operated as a secondary school in the last century before becoming a basic school in the early 2000s. Two children will start first grade this year.

“The last time no pupils came to Meremäe for first grade was two years ago. Last year, three pupils came,” said Pille Liblik, director of Setomaa schools. She said the municipality had decided that education at least through sixth grade should remain close to children’s homes.

Although the number of pupils has fallen over the past decade, Liblik said the number of children starting school in Setomaa had increased over the past two years.

Children are also unevenly distributed in Peipsiääre municipality. Two pupils will begin first grade at Kolkja School, which has 37 pupils in total.

“Urbanisation has drawn many young people away from this region, but I believe the school keeps some families here,” said Aitel Käpp, acting director of Kolkja School. The school serves a region where an Old Believer community has lived for centuries, and Käpp said one of its important roles was to show that Estonian civic life and state laws can coexist with the community’s old culture and traditions.

The kindergarten section of Kolkja School will be empty this year. It is therefore not known how many pupils may attend the school in the coming years. Peipsiääre municipality does not plan to close it, but says reorganisations are likely in the future. An analysis due to be completed by spring will determine what form they may take.

Some schools will begin the new school year without any pupils. These include Unipiha Primary School in Kambja municipality and Laiuse Jaan Poska Basic School in Jõgeva municipality, where extensive renovations are under way.

Jõgeva municipality expects more children to enrol at Laiuse in the following years. “According to forecasts and the distribution of children in the municipality, eight to 12 children are expected to start school, and the same is expected the following year,” Jõgeva Mayor Karro Külanurm said.

Külanurm said municipalities with declining populations would all have to consider what their schools would look like in five or six years. He said communities should discuss whether some schools should offer fewer grades, adding that the upper grades of basic schools would require a separate discussion.

Several parents said local basic schools were worth preserving.

“My children also attended a small village school that no longer exists. Hanna is now going into second grade. There are six pupils in her class, and the teacher can still work with every child,” said a grandmother named Ere.

Another parent, Urmet, said it was unreasonable for primary or basic school pupils to spend 40 minutes or longer travelling to school by bus and the same time returning home.