2023-05-12 10:00:54
The visit of Minister of Education Kristina Kallas to Narva a week ago, during which she met with directors of Narva schools, as well as the upcoming meeting of representatives of the Ministry of Education with Narva parents, once again stirred up the exciting topic of transition to Estonian-language education, where so far there are more questions than answers.
Every school a seven-year plan
In Narva, Kristina Kallas discussed with the directors the preparation of detailed transition plans, which should be individual for each school. The minister said that to help school principals in this matter, the Ministry of Education has specialists who can be contacted with any questions.
The plan for the next seven years, since the transition to Estonian-language education will be completed by 2030, should detail which teachers meet the necessary requirements already now, which ones have to improve their knowledge of Estonian or acquire new skills in teaching their subject in Estonian.
“Because even knowledge of the Estonian language in category C1 does not mean that the teacher is ready to teach in it,” the minister stressed. According to her, plans for which courses – language, advanced training – are necessary for every teacher working at the school and which teachers the school will have to look for additionally, are needed first of all by the educational institutions themselves in order to have a clear program of action for the future. But they are also important for local governments and the Ministry of Education, which will have to support schools in this difficult task.
Will the ministry, for its part, control the drawing up of these seven-year plans and monitor their implementation? “No, this is not about control, but about closer cooperation, the purpose of which is to help schools,” Kallas answered, emphasizing once again that schools themselves should be interested in such close contacts and assistance from the ministry, since there are no delays no transition to Estonian-language education is planned.
“Nobody said it was easy”
Narva Gazeta asked Vyacheslav Konovalov, director of the Narva Pähklimäe Gymnasium, how his meeting with the Minister of Education went and how things are going at the gymnasium, which will become a basic school next year, with a seven-year plan to prepare for the transition to Estonian-language education.
The director believes that this process will be painful for teachers. “Indeed, the individual transition plan for the school was a major theme. I have a plan for the next two years. This year there is a need for primary school teachers and a new Estonian language teacher, we have already started looking for them. Some of our teachers will take part in teacher training courses organized by Narva College, and some of the teachers will improve their level of Estonian in courses organized with the support of the Ministry of Education,” said Vyacheslav Konovalov. According to him, while none of the school’s teachers said that they were not ready to improve their knowledge of the Estonian language to the required level, the next academic year could become critical in this regard.
“Not every one of our teachers, given that the average age of teachers is 50 years old, will be able to take intensive Estonian language courses without interruption from work – we need to look at these things realistically. Christina Kallas confirmed: yes, it won’t be easy, no one promised it, but there’s no other way, ”the director looks at things realistically.
Yes, and the Estonian language courses for teachers themselves have become a serious problem: they were originally going to be opened last year, but competitions to find teachers for the courses failed twice, as such teachers were in short supply. According to the Ministry’s estimates, about 400 people in Narva currently do not meet the language requirements (B2 – when teaching their subject in Russian and C1 – when teaching in Estonian), but only 112 teachers were able to get into language courses after preliminary testing.
Next year, directors will have to invite the Language Inspectorate to assess which category the Narva teachers actually know Estonian. Thus, despite the fact that the language requirements for teachers are far from new, many Narva teachers will have to make a difficult choice: to exert themselves to the maximum and master the Estonian language in two years, or to lose their usual job and the increased salary promised to teachers in Ida-Virumaa in the amount of about 3,000 euros .
At this point, some teachers may drop out of the race. In social networks, Narvitians are actively discussing this topic, urging teachers to “hold on and not give up.”
However, it is highly likely that Narva directors will have to invite teachers from other cities to fill the vacancies. They can only be attracted by the high salary promised for Ida-Virumaa, since there are practically no decent municipal housing in Narva.
NG asked the director of the Pähklimäe Gymnasium how parents feel about this situation, whether they often ask questions. “Questions are almost never asked, as the information on this topic was exhaustive. Therefore, parents are just waiting now to see how things go further, so it seems to me. Let’s also see how many parents will come to the meeting with representatives of the Ministry of Education on May 17, and what questions they will ask there,” Konovalov said.
The post Through hardships to the stars: Narva discusses transition to Estonian-language education first appeared on gazeta.ee.
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