Teachers and ministry propose ways to improve reading skills

Estonian language teachers say smaller study groups and greater integration between subjects could improve students’ functional reading skills, while the Ministry of Education and Research sees teacher training as a key solution, ERR reported.

The latest PISA results show that functional reading skills have fallen in three-quarters of the countries surveyed compared with seven years ago. Maie Kitsing, an adviser in the ministry’s teacher policy and education management department, said the decline now appeared to reflect longer-term effects rather than only the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

“What we can do is speak very clearly with the universities that deal with the preparation and continuing education of our teachers, because knowledge reaches students in the classroom through the teacher,” Kitsing said.

While teaching methods are a matter for teachers, Kitsing said society as a whole could help change attitudes towards reading and increase appreciation for cultural heritage. She cited the Year of the Estonian Book as one example.

“Reading skills are clearly closely linked to reading fiction and non-fiction. Reading more is important. Only reading helps improve reading ability,” Kitsing said.

Kaja Sarapuu, chair of the board of the Estonian Association of Teachers of Estonian, said the decline in functional reading skills had resulted from many factors. She pointed to classes containing students with widely varying abilities, the prevalence of solutions that do not require deep concentration, reduced reading and frequent teacher turnover.

Sarapuu said one possible solution was to integrate subjects more closely. Students’ vocabulary had also become smaller as reading declined, she said, meaning they might not understand a word in an assignment. Reading and mathematics were closely connected, and Estonian language and mathematics could be taught together more often.

“Our Estonian school system is not yet strong enough, or has not practised this kind of pleasant integration between subjects,” Sarapuu said. Estonian was usually integrated with history or another language, she said, but combining the mother tongue with mathematics would also be highly beneficial.

Sarapuu said that throughout her long teaching career she had also wanted more lessons and smaller language-learning groups. In classrooms containing students of different nationalities, abilities and health conditions, it was not possible to provide a very good lesson to 30 students, she said.

She suggested that Estonian language lessons could, like foreign-language classes, be held in groups of 10 to 12 students. This would make lessons more productive and allow more oral work, she said. At present, too much emphasis was placed on written work and completing worksheets, while speaking in class was crucial.