Estonian youth club leaders help students practise Estonian outside class
Since schools switched to Estonian-language instruction, activity leaders have become more important for practising the language after class, but heavy workloads and lack of recognition drive many out of the job.
As Estonian schools shift to teaching in the Estonian language, the role of youth activity leaders has grown more important. These specialists now help students practise Estonian not only in lessons but also through extracurricular activities such as choir singing, yoga, folk dancing or drama clubs.
In Ida-Viru County, where everyday life still largely takes place in Russian, classroom lessons alone are not enough for young people to practise Estonian, said Virve Linder, marketing manager at the Ida-Viru Vocational Education Centre COSMOS. She noted that extracurricular activities play a key role in creating an Estonian-language environment beyond regular classes.
Kristi Tarik, director of the vocational school AVARA, considers the absence of grading the main advantage of extracurricular activities. In the classroom, language learning often creates a sense that every step and sentence a student makes is being evaluated, whereas extracurricular activities involve no such assessment, resulting in a more relaxed atmosphere.
Shortage of qualified staff
One persistent problem is a shortage of qualified activity leaders, as they often end up taking on significant extra duties. Kristina Mazena, executive director of the Association of Youth Workers, explained that when a teacher falls ill, schools often assume the activity leader can simply substitute, reasoning that they have no lesson anyway and nothing else to do. According to Mazena, this attitude is one reason why activity leaders frequently do not stay long in their positions.
Activity leaders themselves say the extra workload is not the only reason for leaving. Mazena noted that in their daily work they also face criticism from teachers and sometimes even mistreatment at the workplace, including accusations of being overly familiar with students or behaving inappropriately.
