Wide language choices leave high schools struggling to continue studies

Estonian high schools may be unable to continue teaching the second foreign languages students began in basic school, ERR reports. The Education Ministry has not restricted the choice of languages, and 15 were taught in basic schools last year.

Hans Krister, who started at high school this autumn, studied Spanish for three years in basic school. His new school does not teach it, so his family is paying for private lessons to continue his studies.

His father, Sven Kala, said the family found another student to share the lessons, keeping the cost below that of individual tuition. “After one lesson, my child said, ‘Dad, I think that money was well spent. I can feel that I’m really learning and developing there,’” Kala said.

The Tallinn Language School has seen increased interest from schoolchildren in French and Finnish this autumn. Finnish has been the most requested language, including for online lessons taken by students outside Tallinn, said the school’s director, Ivar Soone. Courses for students cost less than 100 euros a month, he said, and no school has paid for them so far.

The Education Ministry sees no problem with families paying for courses. If a high school cannot continue a student’s language instruction, it must offer the chance to start another language from the beginning. Alternatively, the student can continue lessons outside school at the family’s expense, and the school can recognise the results.

Marika Peekmann, the ministry’s chief expert on foreign languages, said that continuing a language outside school is generally the choice of the student and their parents, rather than a substitute for an option the school is required to provide. High schools must offer instruction in a B1-level foreign language, she said.

Ene Saar, head of Tallinn Reaalkool, said schools face a greater challenge ahead. This year’s basic-school graduates are the first cohort required to choose a foreign language other than Russian, she said, and it will be difficult to open groups for every language students request. “It simply isn’t financially possible to offer a group to everyone who wants one,” Saar said.

Saar said schools could limit the choice of second foreign languages and teach some less common languages as electives. The ministry does not see a need for this, saying it is not aware of problems at high schools.