Estonia lacks teachers for refugee children - school director

Photo: Ants Liigus

Estonian universities graduate at best 15-20 teachers for mixed-language classes annually, but since most of them focus on Russian-speaking students specialists for teaching refugee children whose mother tongue is for example Arabic are in short supply, a school director says.

The Estonian school system uses the integrated subject and language instruction method (LAK), which is intended for language acquisition and provides in addition subject-related knowledge, and vice versa, Liis Reier, director of a school in the northern town of Vosu, explained. The existing LAK teachers are mostly oriented towards Russian-speaking students and in a smaller degree towards Finnish and English speakers.

"Just out of interest, I studied universities' admissions lists from the perspective of where to turn if I were looking for specialists for teaching refugee children," she said. In her words, four people all of whom probably are working teachers began to study Estonian as second language at the Tallinn University this year.

The Narva College of the University of Tartu enrolled 55 students specializing in teaching in a multilingual environment. Added to them are distance learning students who Reier believes are already working as teachers.

"Anyway, the exact figures are not all that important. They give us an idea of how many specialists who could instruct children speaking other languages are coming from universities. By the most optimistic forecast, they number 15-20 per year," Reier said.

Looking at the student lists, it can be assumed that a large part of them wants to specialize in the future in teaching children of Russian-speaking families in Estonian schools or in the Estonian language, the school director added. "This, too, is an unavoidable task the state must fulfill. But obviously there will be a shortage of specialists to teach Arabic-speaking children. This task would be performed in schools by teachers without special education or some local enthusiasts, with unpredictable results," she said.