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Viewing cable 06TALLINN418, UPDATE ON ESTONIA'S SCHOOL REFORM

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
06TALLINN418 2006-05-03 12:58 2011-08-25 00:00 UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Embassy Tallinn
VZCZCXRO2323
RR RUEHAG RUEHDA RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHLN RUEHLZ
RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHTL #0418/01 1231258
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 031258Z MAY 06
FM AMEMBASSY TALLINN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 8550
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 TALLINN 000418 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM EN
SUBJECT:  UPDATE ON ESTONIA'S SCHOOL REFORM 
 
REF: A) 05 TALLINN 1152  B) 05 TALLINN 313 
 
1. (U) Summary:  In September 2007 Estonia's 63 Russian 
language high schools will begin a gradual four-year 
transition to teaching 60% of the curriculum in Estonian 
(reftels).  The GOE is slowly responding to criticism 
that preparations have been insufficient and a National 
Action Plan was adopted in March.  Russian-speaking 
parents seem less concerned about the increase in 
instruction in Estonian than they are about the impact 
of the reform on the quality of instruction.  With 
parliamentary elections scheduled for early 2007 we 
expect efforts to politicize the reform to intensify 
over the coming year.  End summary. 
 
------------------- 
The Need for Reform 
------------------- 
 
2. (U) The GOE's National Action Plan (NAP), adopted in 
March 2006, affirms that 60 per cent of subjects in 
Estonia's Russian-language high schools should be taught 
in Estonian.  The beginning of the 2007 school year will 
mark the start of instruction of Estonian Literature in 
Estonian.  Civics (2008), Music and Art History (2009), 
Geography (2010), and Estonian History (2011) will 
follow.  The NAP outlines the principles of the reform 
and has allotted 70 million Estonian kroons (roughly USD 
5 million) for implementation.   According to the NAP, 
the bulk of the money will be spent on retraining 
teachers and school leaders, creating a teacher 
incentive program, updating teaching materials for 
native Russian-speakers, and for awareness and NAP 
coordination and evaluation activities. 
 
------------------------------- 
Major Concerns about the Reform 
------------------------------- 
 
3. (U) According to Ministry of Education and GOE 
Integration Foundation officials the level of 
preparedness for the reform varies among the 63 schools 
affected.  About twenty already have considerable 
Estonian language immersion or other intensive language 
instruction; another twenty are more or less ready for 
the reform; and the last twenty will require 
considerable support and counseling from the state. 
 
4. (U) Although critics say the MOE has gotten off to a 
slow start, MOE officials are clearly sensitive to the 
need to reach out to students, teachers, and the Russian 
community in general.  Minister of Education Mailis Reps 
regularly speaks to the press and has penned articles 
for the national media to explain the reform; a new 
department, headed by a native Russian-speaker, has been 
established within the Ministry with responsibility for 
carrying out the reform; and a nationwide series of 
consultations has been organized to explain the changes 
to parents, teachers and other stakeholders. 
 
5. (SBU) But in recent conversations representatives 
from both the Non-Estonians? Integration Foundation 
(NEIF) and the office of the Minister for Population and 
Ethnic Affairs told us they were concerned by the slow 
start and  lack of an outreach game plan.  NEIF Director 
Tanel Matlik told us that his organization has only now 
been given an EEK 8.5 million (USD 650,000) contract 
(that will run from April 2006 through summer 2008) for 
teacher preparation and other steps in support of the 
reform.  Matlik said preparatory steps would be three- 
tiered: 1) teacher retraining and didactics; 2) 
preparation of counselors who will work in each school 
on reform implementation and monitoring of classroom 
instruction for quality; and 3) an information campaign 
for parents. 
 
6.  (SBU) Minister of Population Affairs (MPA) advisor 
Aarne Veedla told us he too believes the MOE has been 
slow, and stressed the need for establishing a social 
support program for teachers who will be affected by the 
reform.  Veedla also underscored the importance of 
ensuring the quality of education that Russian speakers 
will receive in Estonian.  The NEIF's Matlik said his 
organization's polling data indicate that quality -- 
rather than language -- of instruction is the top 
concern of Russian-speaking parents. 
 
7.  (SBU) While both Veedla and Matlik say outreach to 
parents has been lacking, there is evidence that GOE 
institutions are beginning playing catch-up.  In early 
April President Ruutel opened a regional session of the 
Presidential Roundtable on National Minorities in 
 
TALLINN 00000418  002 OF 003 
 
 
northeast Estonia designed to bring parents and 
educators together to discuss the reform plan.  And in 
May the Ministry of Education will host a seminar to 
present the results of a regional consultative process 
on reform implementation. 
 
---------------------------------------- 
MIXED REVIEWS FROM STUDENTS AND TEACHERS 
---------------------------------------- 
 
8.  (SBU) We continue to hear mixed reviews about the 
pending reform from teachers and students (reftels). 
One Russian school geography teacher interviewed 
recently in the Estonian press said "it's one thing to 
speak Estonian, another to teach Russian students in 
it," but also noted that students can "always ask in 
Russian if confused."  Teachers without the requisite 
knowledge of Estonian fear losing their jobs.  To date 
teachers concerned about the reform have not been 
organized, or particularly vocal, in their opposition, 
though retired Biology and Geography teacher Nina 
Gavrilova spoke for the more strident end of her cohort 
when she told the press recently that "the silence of 
Russian teachers can be interpreted as the protest of 
'the insulted and humiliated' against the destruction of 
Russian cultural intelligentsia."  Common also is the 
view expressed by Civics teacher Vladimir Kalinkin, who 
said "instruction in a foreign [Estonian] language will 
limit students? knowledge by killing their interest in 
studies and worsening instruction quality."  He claims 
that students "view the reform as infringement of human 
rights, assimilation, and, its end product, 
discrimination." 
 
9.  (U) Many Russian school students have in fact 
expressed negative views in the media about the coming 
reform.  GOE officials tell us this reflects parroting 
of misinformation spread among teachers and parents, and 
say that more aggressive outreach of the kind recently 
initiated will help address the problem.  A recurring 
concern among students who have expressed opposition to 
the reform is that their grades will suffer because 
instruction in Estonian will make comprehension of the 
given subject more difficult.  This in turn will be a 
form of discrimination against Russian-speaking 
students. 
 
10.  (U) Not all Russian-speaking students oppose the 
reform, however, and some groups are looking for more 
opportunities to learn Estonian.  When Estonia's 
Language Immersion Center (which oversees Estonian 
immersion programs nationwide) was threatened with 
closure earlier in the year, the Student 
Representational Assembly (which includes 
representatives from over 50 Russian schools) protested 
strongly.  The Director of the?Open Republic? (OP) youth 
organization, which supports the reform, told us 
recently that students in northeast Estonia are 
generally positive towards the reform, though he 
acknowledged that many simply hope it will not affect 
them. 
 
--------------------------------- 
The Political Angle on the Reform 
--------------------------------- 
 
11. (SBU) With Estonian parliamentary elections less 
than a year away, the educational reform is almost 
certain to become politicized.  Criticism of the 
Ministry of Education by MPA advisor Veedla, who like 
his Minister is from the Reform Party, is undoubtedly in 
part motivated by the fact that the MOE is in the hands 
of a Minister from the Center Party.  The chance to 
tweak a party that has been the traditional beneficiary 
of Estonia's Russian-speaking vote will be hard to 
resist.  Already Reform Party MP Sergei Ivanov has 
weighed in on the subject in the press, as has People's 
Union MP Rodion Denissov who suggests that the only 
possible way to solve the situation is to start looking 
for alternative methods -- including development of 
private schools -- of providing quality education in 
one?s mother tongue. 
 
12. (SBU) Estonia's mainstream political parties will be 
somewhat constrained in the debate for fear of offending 
either one or the other of the ethnic Estonian and 
Russian-speaking constituencies.  This is not the case 
for Estonia's Russian-speaking parties.  Never 
particularly successful in Estonia, these parties can be 
expected to work the issue for maximum gain.  The 
Constitutional Party's recently-elected Chair Andrei 
Zarenkov told us the education reform is one of the 
 
TALLINN 00000418  003 OF 003 
 
 
party's top priorities. Zarenkov, who in his short 
tenure has shown that he's not afraid to court 
controversy, says the school reform will fail 
conceptually -- in part because educational quality 
cannot be maintained -- but then be imposed anyway. 
This will provoke a backlash among Russian-speakers, he 
predicts. 
 
13. (SBU) For its part the Russian Party of Estonia 
tried to make an issue of the reform during 2005 
municipal elections.  Having largely failed, it is now 
beginning a campaign to achieve "cultural autonomy" for 
Estonia's Russian-speakers, a legal status under 
Estonian law that gives certain rights to minority 
groups to form institutions for "cultural self- 
government." 
 
14. (SBU) Comment:  While it appears the GOE was slow 
off-the-mark in preparing the upcoming reform, a bit of 
urgency has been injected into the process in recent 
months.  Teacher training, further development of 
material and an awareness campaign will all be critical 
to ensure a smooth start to the transition in 2007.  But 
regardless of how preparations proceed, we can expect 
loud criticism from some quarters -- both domestically 
and internationally -- as the reform proceeds.   The 
issue is too tempting for some constituencies to let 
pass.  However, given the gradual nature of the 
transition, and the fact that Russian-speaking parents 
genuinely want their children to have a better knowledge 
of Estonian (immersion programs are routinely over- 
subscribed), large-scale street protests of the kind we 
saw in Latvia are unlikely here. 
 
WOS