Minister: Narva municipal schools and kindergartens will not become state-owned

2023-09-08 10:06:15

The Minister of Education of the Republic of Estonia, Kristina Kallas, came to the opening of Narva state gymnasiums. Photo: Natalya Starostina

State gymnasiums including only grades 10-12: Estonian and, relatively speaking, Russian, in which 60 percent of the gymnasium course is taught in Estonian and 40 percent in Russian, have become the new reality of Narva. They have many advantages, but Narva’s basic municipal schools and kindergartens are not going to be made public, the Minister of Education of the Republic of Estonia, Kristina Kallas, told Narva Gazeta.

The advantages of Narva state gymnasiums are not only the new ultra-modern buildings, one of which, the “Russian” gymnasium, is already ready and working, and the other, the Estonian one, will be completed very soon and will accept students in January 2024.

A highly developed learning environment is many things, but not everything, although it is particularly attractive to both children and teachers. State gymnasiums, independent of local government, also have the undeniable advantage that they will not be purposefully involved in Narva politics as sources of votes for collectives and parents of students for a certain ruling political force. Their directors themselves will not rush to the city assembly in order to, once in the coalition, guarantee their educational institutions full development, that is, rich funding for this development from the city budget.

State gymnasiums are already demonstrating fundamentally new approaches to organizing education. For example, the Narva Estonian Gymnasium began the year by bringing all the students together so that the leaders and teachers could find out their expectations, hopes, and wishes regarding their studies. The Narva State Gymnasium (“Russian”) spent its first days outside its wonderful building, creating a team of gymnasium students and teachers.

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Everyone simply turned a blind eye to the fact that the system did not work in practice for 15 years.

The approach that Narva State Gymnasium is going to honestly apply to the “60 to 40” system, that is, intensive teaching of Estonian in different ways in order to successfully teach other subjects in it, is simply unprecedented for Narva. Everyone simply turned a blind eye to the fact that the system did not work in practice for 15 years.

We can expect many more new, truly revolutionary, things to happen in Narva state gymnasiums. We will monitor what is happening in them very carefully and tell you.

Is there a possibility that municipal Narva schools and kindergartens will one day also become state-owned, which, say, will benefit them? We asked Estonian Minister of Education Kristina Kallas about this.

“The transfer of Narva’s basic schools from the city to the state is not currently on the agenda,” Kallas said. – Of course, there are no plans to transfer kindergartens to the state either. Their maintenance will remain the task of local government.”

According to her, until now schools have been transferred to the state either on the basis of an agreement foreseen in the education development plan to take on greater responsibility at the secondary education level, or in exceptional cases – to preserve and strengthen Estonian-language education in Ida-Viru County. As, for example, in the case of Narva Vanalinna State School.

The post Minister: Narva municipal schools and kindergartens will not become state-owned first appeared on gazeta.ee.