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In 2024, Estonia launched a major educational reform: kindergartens and schools began a gradual transition to Estonian-medium education, to be completed in preschool and basic education by 2030. In Tartu, the transition began already in 2023. Until now, Estonia has maintained a dual school system—Estonian- and Russian-medium—inherited from the Soviet occupation. This paper examines the attitudes of Russian-speaking parents toward supporting their children’s mother tongue during the transition in Tartu’s bilingual schools and kindergartens. While Estonian legislative and strategic documents emphasise the importance of maintaining the mother tongue of pupils who study in a language different from their family language, institutional support and resources remain limited, placing the responsibility largely on families. The qualitative study is based on 25 in-depth interviews conducted in early 2023 with Russian-speaking parents whose children were attending transition schools and kindergartens in Tartu. The theoretical framework is based on research highlighting the importance of first-language development for additional language learning, academic achievement, and cognitive development. Content analysis reveals divergent parental attitudes. Some emphasise the need to preserve the mother tongue and expect schools to provide support, viewing multilingualism as a resource that strengthens identity and future prospects. Others prioritise rapid transition to Estonian-medium education, considering L1 development in educational settings less important. The findings highlight how legislative appreciation of multilingualism is undermined by the lack of institutional support.
Vender et al. (Wed,) studied this question.