Schools warn admissions timetable will sharply increase workload

Estonian school leaders have warned that the Ministry of Education’s planned changes to upper-secondary school admissions will sharply increase workloads and could force schools to abandon student-friendly joint entrance examinations, ERR reports. The Estonian Chamber of People with Disabilities also said the changes do not take learners with special educational needs into account.

Under the proposed timetable, schools would begin admissions after the results of basic school final examinations have been released and would make offers of study places to applicants on June 9.

Urmo Uiboleht, head of the association of Estonian school leaders, told the ministry that applications would close on the seventh working day after the final national basic school examination. Admissions activities could begin only on the eighth working day.

“This will lead to a sharp increase in workload,” Uiboleht said.

He noted that admissions activities lasted 16 working days this spring, while the draft timetable would reduce the period to 13 working days next spring. Entrance tests, their assessment, data entry, interviews and offers of study places would all have to be completed three working days sooner.

Uiboleht said the busiest admissions period would coincide with regular teaching, the completion of transition-year classes and final examinations. He also said practical experience showed that the assessment process at the Education and Youth Board could take time, potentially delaying results.

Shortening the timetable could force upper-secondary schools to abandon labour-intensive joint entrance examinations and hold tests individually, with stricter preliminary criteria, Uiboleht said. This would reduce students’ opportunities to apply and affect students with average or below-average results most severely, he added.

Schools could have as little as one day for admissions work

The Estonian Association for the Promotion of Vocational Education also raised concerns, saying schools could have only one to three working days to conduct entrance tests, assess the results and compile rankings if tests for upper-secondary and vocational schools began on the eighth working day after the final basic school examination but offers had to be made on June 9.

“Such a timetable places a significant burden on both schools and admissions information systems and could damage the quality of the admissions process,” said Kuno Rooba, a board member of the association.

The draft would also change the start of admissions for preparatory studies. This year, they began on July 1 at the same time as additional admissions, but next year they would begin on September 1.

The aim is to offer preparatory studies only to applicants who do not have another place to study. The vocational education association said this could leave young people who have not secured a place in general or vocational secondary education uncertain throughout the summer and unable to plan their further studies in good time.

Rooba said the association supported the aims of the draft.