Estonia: Number of schoolchildren learning Russian down sharply

The number of school students learning Russian has declined by 25% in Estonia, ERR reports. An official at the Ministry of Education said that 59% of students in grades 4-6 learned Russian in the school year 2023/2024, which was down from 78% in the year before. Around 20% of students have switched from Russian to other languages, particularly Spanish (7.4%), Finnish (4%), and German. Following legislative changes, schools are now obligated to offer other languages besides English and Russian as the second foreign language. Most students choose English as their first foreign language.