A transition plan for Tallinn's municipal kindergartens and schools to Estonian-language education was approved by the Tallinn City Government. The action plan for the period covering the 2023/24 and 2024/25 academic years focuses on five priority areas, including support for education institution leaders and teachers to attain the necessary proficiency in Estonian, providing training for teachers on teaching multilingual students, creating legal clarity at both the state and city levels, ensuring educational materials and language learning support for students, and offering support for the recruitment of new teachers.

According to Mayor Mihhail Kõlvart, the transition to Estonian-language education is a lengthy and multifaceted process, and it must be implemented under challenging circumstances, given that the initial situation with teachers is very complex, and the state budget for implementing the reform falls short of actual needs. "Tallinn's action plan to support the transition to Estonian-language education does not duplicate the state's plans but includes measures to support teachers and students in Estonian-language schools and those schools transitioning to Estonian-language education," Kõlvart explained.

The transition to Estonian-language education will be carried out with the existing pool of teachers. Therefore, Tallinn's primary goal in the first year is to offer maximum support to teachers who could achieve a C1 level of proficiency in Estonian. "We've already started with this but now we're directing additional resources toward it. The city will organize courses for teachers to achieve a C1 level of proficiency in Estonian," Kõlvart noted. "To recruit new teachers with the necessary qualifications to kindergartens and schools, the Tallinn Education Department offers centralized support, launching the project ’Spetsialist õpetajaks’ (Specialist-to-teacher program)."

Starting from October, a language exchange project will begin, where teachers from Russian-language educational institutions have the opportunity to improve their professional language skills in Estonian-language schools or kindergartens. Estonian-language kindergarten teachers, in turn, will enhance the Estonian language skills of children in Russian-language kindergartens. Individual language lessons for teachers will also be supported with the help of a language app.

To enhance teacher qualifications, subject-didactic courses for teachers will be offered in collaboration with universities and the Tallinn Teachers' House. In cooperation with the University of Tartu, integrated subject and language teaching methodologies will be offered to teachers, as well as courses on teaching and learning in a multicultural learning environment, primarily aimed at teachers in Estonian-language schools. To ensure the availability of didactic and methodological learning materials and environments, the Opiq virtual learning environment will be introduced in Russian-language schools.

To support first- and fourth-grade students in their Estonian language studies and to improve their learning outcomes, a concept for a curriculum-supportive full-day school is being developed and will be implemented, primarily with fourth-grade students in mind. Before the transition to Estonian-language education, children were only studying Estonian according to the national curriculum for two hours a week, which now hinders their ability to acquire knowledge in Estonian in other subjects.

Creating legal clarity at the state and city levels involves updating the system for determining school placements for children entering first grade. This takes into account the transition to Estonian-language education.

The action plan was developed by the City Government's temporary commission for the transition to Estonian-language education, formed on May 31, 2023.

According to the law amending the Basic Schools and Upper Secondary Schools Act and other laws, passed in the Riigikogu on December 12, 2022, the transition to Estonian-language education for preschools, basic schools, and upper secondary schools will commence from September 1, 2024.The transition to Estonian-language education will be gradual: starting on September 1 of the same year, kindergartens will transition to Estonian-language education entirely, as will the first and fourth grades of general education schools. As of September 1, 2024, the Estonian language proficiency of teachers teaching first and fourth grades and students in kindergartens must be at the C1 level.

The transition plan for Tallinn's municipal educational institutions to Estonian-language education can be found HERE.