In the South-Easternmost nook of Estonia, there lies a commune called Misso. Against all odds, their festive «school-starts» gathering today featured more kids than last year – by a third. Schools merged, again? Nope! It’s just that folks are moving into the country side, by the families.
Instead of 29 like last year, the Misso basic school today boasts 43 pupils. The kindergarten, located in the same house with a picturesque lake view, welcomes 17 children. Not seven... before summer came around.
Poor but happy
Postimees went to Misso on Friday – when the kids were still bicycling around the village, full blast. Enjoying the freedom while it lasted. A big part of them moved over with their parents, from towns, this summer. Some arrived last week. The Misso anomaly is caused by campaign by the bright-spirited and spunky, called Come To Countryside (Tule Maale), offering dwellings and jobs to families with kids, in the commune.
As recently as last year, the school family had reason to fear that the house, completed five years back, will have to close down due to kids-shortage. Now, however, the headmaster Kaider Vardja is faced with problems of a totally different sort. This year’s state capitation fee being set as at last October, he is now having to figure out where to find money for the new kids’ textbooks and lunches. «Right now, we will have to do with what we’ve got,» said Mr Vardja. «I went to Tallinn, to get the extra textbooks. To be honest: we are now in debt, to the publishers. But we are very happy to have so many more children,» said he.
The Misso schoolhouse is built for 80 kids; even so, in the lunch hall, it gets crowded and Mr Vardja says they will have to eat lunch in two shifts, probably. The percentage of newcomers is greatest among the youngest: in 1st grade, two of the three are «new»; on the second, it’s three of five. Among the older ones, newcomers are scarcer.
The Misso school is an exception, defying the merciless trend of the emptying country schools. Surely, the model could not be copied in all communes in Estonia – here, the novelty granted a competitive edge. According to the Misso mayor Urmas Peegel, every newcomer-family may not stick. School headmaster, Mr Vardja, underlines the collective effort.
Tule Maale project manager Katerina Puusepp, mother of five, bursts with enthusiasm. «What do I expect from the new school? It is so small that essentially you get individual tutoring,» said she. «In town, one would pay a lot for luxury like that!» The kids are picked up from their homes by a school bus, and taken to the schoolhouse along hillside paths like a roller-coaster – at places.
The exuberant enthusiasm
Katerina Puusepp came to Misso from Tallinn. Of her five children, four go to school, one to kindergarten. In Tallinn, the Puusepp children attended Sikupilli high school. «In my childhood days, I used to be in Võru County a lot – I know well how the winters are, here,» said Ms Puusepp.
But what about hobby education, around Misso? «There are lots of extra-school activities here,» claims Ms Puusepp. «Football, karate and crafts... like working with clay.» One might be tempted to think that the Puusepp children were against the move – leaving behind both Tallinn and the friends. On the contrary, claims the Mom: the initiative came from the kids. «The children said: let’s go to the countryside,» she says.
Angelica Valdmaa, a girl of 8, came to Tsiistre village from Rapla, this August. As her Mom and Dad got a liking towards a certain house, in Misso. In Angelica’s former class, there were 23 kids. Now, they are five. Even so, the girl was all excitement on the threshold of the first day at new school. «I have already been to see it! It wasn’t that small, you know.» In Rapla, Angelica lived in an apartment. Now, the parents are busy renovating the house – soon and very soon, Angelica will get a room of her own, on the second floor. «We do have a cat, already. And then we will also have a kitten, one of these days.»
To buy the school stuff, Angelica did a trip to Võru with her parents. «We got a diary, notebooks, pencils, erasers, rulers and other things as well,» lists the girl. The last year’s schoolbag is still god enough. Angelica has yet to calculate the distance between their new Tsiistre home and Misso school house. According to a map, it ought to be under nine kilometres. So, the school bus will come in handy. The more so that the gravel roads, steep and curvy as they come, would be dangerous for a little lady on her bike.
Estonia’s smallest schools
Number of students as at 2012:
• Lahu primary school 9
• Lavassaare kindergarten/primary school 9
• Saduküla kindergarten/primary school* 7
• Ruhnu basic school 6
• Massiaru primary school** 3
*) Now closed.
**) Not functioning, yet legally in existence.