Estonian and Russian young people have many things in common, but also many different problems. The biggest problem for Russian young people in Estonia today is language difficulties at school and in keeping and finding jobs. The Estonian government has decided that Russian-language schools should be made Estonian-language even without a bilingual programme. Pupils in these schools learned Estonian as a B language and at one time they had to and still have to know everything, in their eyes, in a foreign language.
One of the most painful problems for young Estonians is the closure of smaller schools across Estonia. The smaller schools that are being closed down are in villages, towns and other areas not close to big cities. A large number of the young people who studied or are studying in these locations have to find an alternative, i.e. find a way to get to urban schools.
The first problem for younger school-age children is transport, not all young people or families have a car to drive several kilometres to school in the morning and evening, and public transport to small settlements is very poor. The second problem is increasing competition. It has been proven that village schools have a slightly weaker knowledge base than urban schools. When village children come to compete with urban schools, on average they are still more behind in the ranking. The third problem is that there is not as much space in urban schools. It is not realistic that a handful of schools in Tartu, for example, would take all the young people of southern Estonia to study there. In a smaller school, the teacher has more time to pay attention to the individual development of the student.
At the same time, there are common problems such as environmental problems, lack of jobs and rising taxes. Everyone sees environmental changes in the weather, in the increase in rubbish, in natural disasters or in the news. The lack of work is because most jobs want young people to have several years’ experience, to speak several languages, to have a higher education or not to be paid more than the minimum wage. The problem with tax rises is that it is not possible to live normally on the wages young people are paid today.
Young people in Estonia speak very good English and a little Russian. Russian young people, on the other hand, are at home in Estonian and Russian, with English taking a back seat. At the same time, there are many jobs where the nature of the work requires a very good command of Estonian, Russian and English.
Thus, in today’s Estonia, young people still face major problems in shaping their future, regardless of their nationality.
Christelle Mariely Rammul, Tartu Election Supervisor
PHOTO BY ANNI GLÜCKELEID