GENEVA, August 17. /TASS/. Estonia’s law on the total transition of the Baltic state’s educational system to the state language, Estonian, de facto prevents Russian speakers from getting an education in the country and flies in the face of international human rights documents, according to a statement by UN human rights experts published on the website of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
"By eliminating minority language instruction in pre-schools and schools, the new law severely restricts minority language education in Estonia, in contravention of international human rights documents," the experts said.
They highlighted the fact that the legislation introduces "restrictive and potentially discriminatory measures affecting the rights of ethnic and linguistic minorities in education." The experts also expressed concern about the impact of the Estonian law’s provisions on the Baltic state’s Russian-speaking population, stressing that the "minority language has been effectively eliminated as a medium of instruction."
In December 2022, the Riigikogu (Estonia’s unicameral parliament - TASS) passed a law establishing the procedure for transitioning the country’s entire educational system to instruction exclusively in the Estonian language. Starting from 2024-2025, kindergartens and primary schools will be converted to the state language, and by 2029-2030 the share of Estonian-language instruction should be at least 60%. The full transition of schools to Estonian is planned for 2030-2031, and the practice will be extended to senior grades no later than 2032-2033. Starting from 2024, teachers will be required to have a C1 level of proficiency in Estonian. Starting from the same year, schools will be allowed to conduct teaching and educational activities in a language other than Estonian only with special permission from the government. If the authorities agree, the changeover to Estonian may be postponed by one year.
There are 74 secondary schools in different regions of Estonia that provide education in Russian, but their number is steadily decreasing. More than 20% of all students in the country study in Russian-language schools. Earlier, Russian Deputy Permanent Representative to the OSCE Alexander Volgarev called on the OHCHR to monitor the issue of the situation of the Russian language in Estonia against the background of attempts by the Estonian authorities to oust the language altogether from the field of education.