

Estonia to teach more Estonian

  • 2008-09-01
  • In cooperation with BNS
TALLINN - Estonian schools have expanded the number ofcourses that must be taught in the country's national language in an effort to revitalize the language and give minoritystudents more opportunities.

The move means that all schools nationwide 's including thosethat cater specifically to native Russian speakers 's will have to includeEstonian-language courses in both Estonian literature and either music or civicstudies.

Currently only 17 Russian-language schools 's about 27percent of the total number of such schools operating in the country 's meet therequirements.

Under the program, all Russian-language schools will have to teach at least60 percent of their courses in Estonian from the 10th grade onwards startingfrom the academic year 2011/2012.

In the previous academic year, there were 30,626 studentsattending Russian-language schools nationwide, nearly 20 percent of the totalnumber of students in the country.