Education minister Tõnis Lukas has criticized the dominance of Russian as the primary foreign language in Estonian schools and believes that this situation is rather a habit than necessity, reports Estonian Public Broadcasting ERR.
Because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian language teaching in schools is now under scrutiny.
On Wednesday, Augst 3rd at Vikerraadio show «Vikerhommik» he said that the dominance of the Russian language in Estonia as a second foreign language is not normal. He considers that Russian tourists are able to speak English, since it is the number one foreign language taught in Russia and will not be left without communication options.
THE MINISTER SAID THAT SO FAR IN ESTONIA, ENGLISH HAS BEEN OFFERED AS THE FIRST FOREIGN LANGUAGE and RUSSIAN AS SECOND, AND THIS SHOULD BE CHANGED IN BOTH CASES, offering FRENCH OR GERMAN AS AN ALTERNATIVE.
ERR reports that the Education Minister does not approve schools offering Russian as a second foreign language. As a reason he mentions Russian language teachers at schools who need a workload, while smaller schools have not been able to recruit German or French teachers. But this cannot be an excuse for choosing Russian as a foreign language.
He thinks that schools should find solutions in line with the wishes of parents and could offer students a wider range of language courses.
Education minister also stressed that languages were not being politicized and language itself is not to be blamed for anything, but there should be a wider choice available
Lukas considers it is important to offer more that one or two foreign languages, so that the society does not consider that the taught languages are the critical ones. Because that will make the world a much poorer place for ourselves.
In many schools in Estonia, students can choose Russian as a foreign language from 6th grade, though in some cases it can be studied earlier.
Because of the current invasion of Ukraine, many parents are reluctant that the Russian language is taught to their children.