Jaak Urmet says Estonian exams demand near perfection

Estonian teacher and writer Jaak Urmet says the language is not in particular danger because people continue to use it, and encourages everyone to express themselves freely and joyfully in their own distinctive way, ERR reported.

Speaking on Vikerraadio’s radio programme Reedene intervjuu, Urmet said that anything can be discussed and described if the right words are found.

Urmet, who writes under the name Wimberg, said he is currently speaking as a teacher because the interview focuses on teaching and school. He has now begun his seventh school year, although some of his colleagues have been teaching since the 1980s.

He said becoming a teacher was not a calling but a coincidence. After working as a freelancer for a long time, he began to feel that constantly finding work was no longer fulfilling. When he was asked whether he knew an Estonian language teacher for a school, he recommended himself.

Urmet said he has teaching qualifications in Estonian language and literature, as well as some history.

The interview also addressed the results of this year’s Estonian state examination. A total of 8,854 young people took the exam, but only eight achieved the maximum score. The average result was 59.6 points. The figures concerned young people who speak Estonian as their native language.

Urmet said the low number of maximum scores did not necessarily reflect young people’s attitude towards their native language. In his four or five years of teaching, he has seen only two students achieve 100 percent on the exam.

He said the exam may simply be designed in a way that makes it difficult to achieve a perfect result, and that students should accept that something may be left out. A result above 90 percent is already good, he said.

For the basic school exam, Urmet tells students that a result above 90 percent means they have done very well and is essentially the equivalent of the highest grade. A result above 80 percent is also perfectly acceptable, he said.

Urmet said the exam can feel like walking a tightrope. In the written part of the basic school exam, making just two small mistakes can immediately cost points. A single error can be enough to make a perfect score impossible.

He added that adults could also make mistakes if they took the exam. Even teachers of other subjects, he said, would probably not achieve 100 percent.