School

Steps

1. Register your residence in the population register (see EE-SEJOUR-TOUS-001): this is the condition for getting your catchment school.
2. Contact your municipality (education department): it offers you a suitable school, generally within 30 days of your request, taking your wishes into account if places remain. You can also contact another school directly, state or private.
3. Submit an admission application to the school with the documents below. The school decides the class according to your child's age and background.
4. For a child arriving from abroad, the school can prepare an individual programme: extra Estonian lessons, a support teacher or an adaptation class, while staying with their class for maths, foreign languages and art and sport subjects.
5. For childcare and nursery school, ask your municipality for a place, which it must provide if you ask for it: in lastehoid (childcare) from 1 and a half to 3 years, in lasteaed (nursery school) from 3 to 7 years, according to the Ministry of Education. For a child under 4, eesti.ee states that you can ask for a childcare place instead of a nursery school place.
6. Have the qualifications of your older children or your own assessed by the Estonian ENIC/NARIC if a school, university or employer asks for it.

Documents

• Copy of the child's identity document and of the parent's.
• Certificate or report from the foreign school (or certified copy).
• Depending on the school: medical certificate, grade report, report on the child's development.
• For the ENIC/NARIC: application form, identity document, diploma and grade transcript (originals or certified copies), sent by email as colour PDFs; documents in Estonian, English, Finnish, Swedish, Italian, Russian, Ukrainian or Belarusian are accepted without translation; for another language, an official translation into Estonian, English or Russian (French is not on the list).

Costs and timelines

• State school: free under the national curriculum, textbooks and exercise books provided by the school (textbooks are to be returned in spring). The school may charge for catering, leisure activities and extracurricular activities. Supplies (pens, sports kit, indoor shoes) are at your expense.
• Canteen: the State page says that schools may charge for catering; the school lunch is supported by State aid paid to municipalities (Basic Schools and Upper Secondary Schools Act, Article 42) and it is the municipal or city council that sets the conditions for using this aid: ask your municipality.
• Municipal childcare and nursery school: the municipality sets the parents' contribution, which cannot exceed 20% of the monthly minimum wage (Ministry of Education, based on the Preschool Education Act). With the minimum wage of €946 in force since 1 April 2026 (EMTA), that makes at most €189.20 a month; the eesti.ee page still shows the old cap of €145. Meals are charged to the parents, on top. Each municipality sets its own amount, which varies from one municipality to another and from one year to the next (including in Tallinn): ask your municipality for the fee.
• International and European schools: mostly fee-paying (fees from the schools).
• Calendar: school starts on 1 September, the year ends around the second week of June, 175 school days. Holidays generally in October, at Christmas, in February and in April. Lessons Monday to Friday, generally from 8:00, 45-minute lessons.
• ENIC/NARIC: free assessment, returned within 30 days of receipt of the complete file.

Common pitfalls

• Arriving without a registered address. Without an address in the register, no catchment school place is assured: register as soon as you arrive.
• Believing that the obligation stops at 17. Some State pages still speak of "7 to 17"; the reform of the obligation to learn (õpikohustus) now requires young people who finished basic school in spring 2026 or later to keep learning until 18 or until the qualification, including foreign children living in Estonia.
• Underestimating the language. Since 2024, the switch to teaching in Estonian has been moving forward every year (years 1 and 4 first) and childcare centres and nursery schools have taught in Estonian since 1 September 2024 (according to the Ministry, a private nursery school may choose another language of instruction, a private childcare centre may not). Russian-language schools are being phased out by 2030.
• Thinking that the "French Lyceum" is a French school. Despite its name, the Tallinna Prantsuse Lütseum is an Estonian school (from the preparatory class up to at least year 10, according to its website); the place of French and its admission conditions are to be checked with the school. The official pages consulted mention no school of the French school network (AEFE) in Estonia.
• Forgetting the mother tongue. If a school has at least ten pupils of the same nationality, it organises if possible, as an optional subject, at least two hours a week of language and culture of origin; otherwise, a solution is sought with the municipality (for example lessons organised by cultural societies).
• An opinion is not a decision. The ENIC/NARIC assessment is an opinion: it is the school, university or employer that decides. For a regulated profession, professional recognition follows another procedure.

What changes by country of origin

• EU, EEA and Swiss citizens: same rights as Estonian families as soon as residence is registered.
• British citizens (Scotland included): the child and the parent must first have a residence permit and a registered address; after that, same rules.
• French speakers: the Tallinn European School (Tallinn European School) prepares for the European Baccalaureate, in English and French, and is fee-paying. A pupil coming from a European school enters the corresponding class.
• German speakers and Finns: two municipal, free German lyceums in Tallinn (Tallinna Saksa Gümnaasium and Kadrioru Saksa Gümnaasium) and a private, fee-paying Finnish school.
• English speakers and others: seven schools offer the International Baccalaureate (IB) in English in Tallinn (Estonian International School, Tallinn English College, Tallinn International School) and in Tartu (Miina Härma Gümnaasium, Tartu International School), mostly private and fee-paying.