Education minister: Levels of Estonian, Russian school moving in different directions

TALLINN – Minister of Education and Research Kristina Kallas stated after comparing the results of the ninth grade mathematics and English language exams that the progress in Estonian-language and Russian-language schools is quite different.

"Interesting conclusions can be drawn from the comparison of the average scores of basic school final exams in Estonian-language and Russian-language schools," Kallas wrote on social media after she had to look at the corresponding data for her research article.

According to the minister, the English language skills of Estonian-speaking young people have improved over the course of 10 years and now the average result is already 91 points out of 100.

"Should a higher level of English already be required at the end of basic school, because it seems to be too easy?" Kallas asked in her social media post. "The pandemic did not have an effect on the English language results of Estonian-speaking young people, but it did have an effect on the English language results of Russian-speaking young people. Is the reason that Estonian-speaking young people learn English not so much at school, but elsewhere, and Russian-speaking young people learn it mainly from school."

According to Kallas, the pandemic also had an effect on the results of the mathematics exam and the rise of the previous years turned into a decline. The minister admitted that the decline was short for Estonian-speaking young people, but longer for Russian-speaking young people, and it is difficult to find an explanation for this.

"Ten years ago, young people from Estonian-language and Russian-language schools had the same average results in mathematics, but since then the results of Russian-speaking young people have fallen compared to Estonian-speaking ones. The difference was noticeable during the pandemic," Kallas added.

"Several conclusions can be drawn from here, that not all educational opportunities depend on language skills, because the lack of knowledge of the Estonian language cannot be blamed neither in the case of English, nor in the case of mathematics, it is studied and the exam is taken in Russian," she said.