MINELRES: Estonia: "Old" Language Proficiency Certificates Recognized

[MINELRES moderator]

Original sender: Helen Sagadi <helen@lichr.ee> 


Language Proficiency Certificates in Estonia

On December 10, 2003, the Estonian parliament has adopted the amendments
to the Law on Language which recognized the "old" state language
certificates to be valid after January 1, 2004. It is a result of 
long-term struggle of local minorities which were assisted by
international organizations, local NGOs (including the Legal Information
Centre for Human Rights) and responsible political parties.

On the basis of the Estonian Law on Language (1989) a vast majority of
Russian-speaking employees were obliged to obtain proficiency in the
official ("state") Estonian language. The proficiency was examined on
special
exams. Official certificates of 6 categories of proficiency were issued
to those who succeeded to pass these exams.

In 1995 a new Law on Language was adopted. In 1999 the parliament has
introduced a new 3-level system of proficiency certificates. Furthermore
all "old" certificates were claimed to be invalid since July 2002 (later
the deadline was postponed till January 2004). In practice this decision
meant new examinations for tens of thousands of non-Estonians of almost
all professions and age groups. In 2000 the parliament has introduced a
principle of rationality and justification by public interests as
regards to the official language requirements in the public sectors of
economy. However, such professions as salesmen, doctors, bus drivers etc
are covered by the official requirements.

The abolishment of a validity of old certificates was ill-founded. The
main reasoning was the "necessity" to insure more rigid control over
Estonian language proficiency according to the new test system and
isolated cases of use of falsified certificates. Nevertheless the
parliament has decided this month that there are no reasons to abolish
all "old" certificates. It was decided that new and old certificates
will be used in parallel. 

Despite the above-mentioned amendment the special Language Inspectorate
still has a right to check the Estonian language proficiency of workers
of both private and public domain. A valid (old or new) certificate
cannot be used as a legal excuse not to participate in such control.
Thus, in 2003 the Inspectorate checked the knowledge of teachers of 9
municipal Russian schools in Tallinn, J�hvi and Kohtla-J�rve. The
knowledge of hundreds of teachers has been claimed to be below standard.
All teachers of municipal and state schools (including teachers of
Russian language in Russian schools) should have a middle level
proficiency certificate (quite an advanced level of proficiency). The
Baltic News Service has reported this month that ten teachers have
already been punished by the Inspectorate with a fine of 2,500 EEK (160
EUR). This year in III quarter the average monthly salary of an Estonian
resident working in the sphere of education was 4,169 EEK (267 EUR)
(Statistical Office of Estonia). 

According to the 2000 national census, 20% of the population of Estonia
cannot speak Estonian. Minorities make up 46% in all population of
Tallinn, 67% in J�vi and 83% in Kohtla-J�ve. Estonian is a mother tongue
of
67% of all population of Estonia (Russian - 30%).


Legal Information Centre for Human Rights