Integration in Estonia´s general educational schools
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Director of the Estonian National Museum
Estonian-language instruction occupies a central place in those of the Republic of Estonia´s schools which have Russian as the language of instruction.
This is in order to ensure that all graduates have equal opportunity to be successful in society and that they are competitive in their further studies and on the job market. This academic year it is possible to obtain a secondary school education in Russian in 63 schools. Estonian literature continues to be taught in Estonian at all of the schools where a 10th grade class was active. Two-thirds of the schools with Russian as the language of instruction have several years of experience teaching subjects in the Estonian language. Besides Estonian literature, these schools currently also teach 23 different subjects in Estonian. In addition to the subjects taught on the upper secondary level, many of the schools with Russian as the language of instruction have also implemented the teaching of at least one subject on the basic school level in Estonian. The introduction of the teaching of Estonian-language subjects – at a rate faster than set forth in legislation – shows that schools have willingly embraced the process and are doing all they can to offer an increasing amount of Estonian-language instruction.