With the extension of compulsory schooling in Estonia to age 18, an additional year will be introduced for basic school graduates who need more time to catch up on their studies. The most common issue is the need to achieve B1-level Estonian.

Starting on September 1 this year, preparatory education, or an additional year of study, will become mandatory for 9th grade students who have such large gaps in their knowledge that they cannot be admitted to either upper secondary school or vocational education.

“To a large extent, this concerns young people who have not acquired sufficient Estonian language skills and are therefore unable to continue their studies,” said Minister of Education Kristina Kallas (Eesti 200).

“A large proportion of their preparatory education will be spent on learning Estonian for an additional year. Estonian language learning is probably one of the biggest investments that needs to be made for preparatory education,” Kallas explained.

There are currently around 1,500 young people who have completed basic education without reaching B1 level in the Estonian language and therefore cannot continue their studies at higher education institutions.

At the same time, many do acquire sufficient Estonian skills to be able to study at upper secondary schools or in vocational education centers, where they have further opportunities to make up for the gaps in their knowledge.

“Those who achieved less than 50 percent at the B1 level of (Estonian) language proficiency – around 500-600 young people – should attend additional Estonian language classes,” said Kallas.

Tallinn Deputy Mayor for Education Andrei Kante said the change is firefighting measure, as the problem goes beyond basic schools not being able to cope with their mandated tasks.

“We lack effective intervention mechanisms to provide general support so that our students can achieve learning outcomes within the nominal period, that is, by the end of 9th grade. These should be accessible to our students, and parents ought to be even more cooperative,” Kante said.

The results of school exams and admissions will be announced by June 9.

Based on that information, vocational education institutions will begin to prepare for groups of up to 15 students. Schools have already begun to develop their preparatory curricula.

“Today, we are already thinking about how to organize admissions – how to identify the students who ought to be directed toward preparatory studies. We are thinking about ways to implement this. We will need additional staff, but exactly what kind and with for what tasks, we still have some time to figure all that out,” said Kristi Tarik, head of AVARA at the College of Economics and Services in Tallinn.

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