If the state and municipalities do not unite, Ida-Virumaa will remain empty of Estonian families, writes Rene Kundla. The reason is not so much the poor performance as the educational policy decisions of the State and municipalities.
In Ida-Virumaa, where the majority of the population is foreign speaking, the high school section of Kiviõli, Iisaku and Toila was pressured to close. Schools where until now it has been possible to retain a majority of students speaking Estonian as a mother tongue have been affected. Supporters of the two schools have already started collecting signatures against the closure of the gym.
As if this test wasn’t enough, in Kiviõli parents whose children have not yet started school are tested. There they want to send all first-graders to an Estonian school from autumn, regardless of their language skills, even though just over nine months before the start of school, neither the school nor the state, as school administrator, have responded to parents during a community meeting about what school schedules will be like.
This has caused several parents to say that if the issue does not become clearer, they will consider moving away from Ida-Virumaa. In particular, it is not advisable for Estonian school-going children to be subjected to linguistic pressure, i.e. to start school in a class where there are fewer people who know the national language than children who only speak Russian. It is hoped that parents will have clearer answers by the January meeting, especially since the necessary teaching methods have been developed.
Unfortunately, the move to learning Estonian has also become a political tool. A clear example is the statement by Dmitri Dmitrijev, president of the Lüganus city council, former member of the Riigikogu, on the occasion of a public meeting held in the aforementioned first Kivõl high school, according to which together with the center party they would have warned that the transition to the Estonian education would cause problems not only for Russian-speaking schools, but also for Estonian-speaking ones. Communities are not united by such positive statements.
I call on all politicians to behave like statesmen and look at changes in education from the point of view of the state and not of parties. This is not a place to score political points.
Of course, maintaining small schools is financially difficult. However, funds could be easily raised: those who can speak Estonian should be supported from the defense budget in Ida-Virumaa. Yes, the state has encouraged teachers with extra pay to come to Ida-Virumaa to teach, but in order for them to teach children who speak Estonian at home in the north-east of Estonia, everything should be done so as not to scare Estonians away Ida – Virumaa.
For this, funds should be raised from the national defense budget, because a person who can speak and think in Estonian is one of the pillars of Estonian national defense.
Therefore, it is necessary to support the preservation of schools with Estonian language environment in Ida-Virumaa, regardless of their size. Because the more students and teachers who speak Estonian fluently at school, the easier it will be for children who don’t speak it to acquire the national language.
2023-12-16 12:28:00
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