Several Issues with the Amendments to the Education Law
The Ministry of Education and Research has proposed a bill that, among other things, raises the mandatory education age to 18 years, limits free vocational education for adults, and abolishes elective exams in basic school and final exams in high school. The Chamber is critical or entirely opposed to several of these amendments.
Abolishment of Elective Exams in Basic School and Final Exams in High School as Graduation Requirements
Under the current basic and high school law, to graduate from basic school, students must pass final exams in Estonian and mathematics, along with an elective exam in a chosen subject. For high school graduation, students must pass state exams in Estonian, mathematics, and a foreign language, and a high school final exam. With the enactment of these amendments, these exams would no longer be required for graduation.
The Chamber opposes the abolishment of elective exams in basic school and final exams in high school as graduation requirements. The removal of these exams does not aid students in better mastering the curriculum or in improving educational quality; rather, it counteracts this goal. If the Ministry of Education and Research wishes to reduce the burden on students and schools, including teachers, other methods should be sought to achieve this goal rather than eliminating some exams.
Raising the Mandatory Education Age
The current law mandates compulsory basic education or participation in educational and developmental activities until the age of 17, if a person has not completed basic education by then. The proposed amendments aim to extend the mandatory education age until 18.
The Chamber of Commerce supports the goal of the planned amendments to reduce the number of youth who do not continue their studies after completing basic school or who drop out of high school or vocational institutions. While the proposed amendments provide a good legal framework for youths to study until the age of 18, they do not guarantee that the number of non-studying youths will automatically decrease in the future.
Achieving a positive change will require more significant contributions from various parties toward this goal. However, these activities, including the implementation of the proposed amendments, will require additional resources, according to our assessment. For instance, the state and likely local governments will need to increase the number of educational places and also expand supplemental and preparatory education. Therefore, it is questionable how well different parties can manage these tasks with the existing resources.
Limiting Free Vocational Education for Adults
The bill proposes making vocational education, which has been largely free for all, partially paid. The first qualification remains free for adults, but in the future, a fee will be required from students who are already studying for free, and from those who have obtained free higher education in the past ten years or vocational education of the same or higher level in the past five years. Education also becomes paid for those who have previously dropped out twice or are undergoing vocational training in a foreign language.
The Chamber of Commerce supports the principle that vocational education will not be universally free in the future. However, it is necessary to ensure that specialties leading directly to employment remain freely accessible to adult learners. There should also be free education in fields where there is a shortage in Estonia, and according to OSKA studies, the number of students needs to be increased, but interest in these fields is low.
There might be problems with the 5- and 10-year limits, which could be too long for those wishing to change careers. For example, if someone has obtained free higher education but cannot find work in that field and wants to pursue vocational education, according to the bill, they can only do so for free after ten years. However, these limits might be too short to reduce so-called hobby education. In our feedback to the ministry, we emphasized that hobby education should be paid regardless of how many years have passed since obtaining free vocational or higher education.
The bill also includes a provision that state and municipal schools will require full reimbursement of educational costs from students who enroll in programs taught in a language other than Estonian. The Chamber believes that when imposing such a condition, a certain transitional period should be provided for free Estonian language acquisition.
Changing Vocational Secondary Education Curricula to Four Years
The Ministry of Education and Research also has the idea of making the national vocational secondary education curricula four years long. Currently, these curricula are generally three years long. The Chamber opposes the idea of making all vocational secondary education curricula four years long, as there is no practical need for this; the change reduces system flexibility, incurs unreasonably high costs, and there are not enough teachers for such a change.
We also believe that if the education becomes four years long, this counters the goal of increasing the attractiveness of vocational education, as high school studies last three years, but vocational secondary education takes four years.
The Chamber considers it important that legal acts allow for both three-year and four-year vocational secondary education curricula. The current regulation allows this; four-year education is used in several fields, and this option must definitely remain available in the future.