Estonia has raised fines for schools with teachers who do not speak the state language and continue to use Russian. Fines have increased 15 times and will reach 10 thousand euros.
This was reported by the Estonian public broadcaster.
Until now, the maximum amount of fines that the Language Department could impose on teachers and schools that do not comply with language requirements was 640 euros.
However, starting August 1, the Language Department, in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Science, will have the right to fine schools that repeatedly violate language requirements up to 9,600 euros.
In addition, the Language Department will have more leverage. While until now the department’s employees could assess teachers’ Estonian language skills based on interviews, starting in the new school year they will have the right to go and check what is actually happening in the classroom.
Narva Mayor Katri Raik believes that the increase in fines is a good signal to city officials, many of whom do not understand the importance of education in Estonian.
“It’s understandable when the fine is large – now 600 euros, it was ridiculous, the local government was paying lightly – but 10,000, when you have five directors, then you have 50,000, and I think that’s where the city council starts thinking about what to do,” Raik said.
According to the Language Board, there are about 2,500 teachers in Estonia who do not speak Estonian well enough.
