School in Estonia: a place guaranteed through your address, lessons in Estonian, and compulsory education to 18

Yes, your children go to a public school in Estonia without tuition fees, with free learning materials, and every child gets a place: the municipality designates a school near the address at which the child is in the population register. School starts in the year a child turns 7, if they reach that age before 1 October. The finding at the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research, HTM: since the 2025/2026 school year compulsory schooling has become an obligation to learn up to 18, also for children with a foreign nationality. The pitfall is the language: most schools teach in Estonian.

How is the Estonian system structured?

Age	Education	Cost
1.5 to 3	childcare, with a place guaranteed by the municipality	fee of at most 20 % of the minimum wage, plus meals
3 to 7	preschool, with a place guaranteed by the municipality	likewise
7 to 16	basic education, grades 1 to 9, in three stages	free at a public school, with free learning materials
16 to 18	general or vocational upper secondary education	within the obligation to learn

The school year usually starts on 1 September and ends in June, with a week's holiday in autumn, winter and spring and two weeks at Christmas. Basic education ends with three exams: Estonian or Estonian as a second language, mathematics and a subject of choice. School meals are arranged by the school; the price is set by the school operator, and some schools offer them free.

How do I enrol my child?

Through the municipality. It coordinates education, designates a school and helps you find a suitable place. Then you submit an application to the school, with an identity document for the child, a health card from the family doctor or school nurse, and where possible previous school reports. If a document is missing, for example because a foreign certificate is still being translated, that must not prevent admission, according to the Estonian Education and Youth Board, Harno.

In Tallinn, applications for the first grade are open from 1 to 15 March; by 20 May you hear which school it will be, and by 10 June you tell the school whether your child will come. If there are more children than places, Tallinn may look at when your address was entered in the population register: whoever was registered earlier goes first.

Register your address before you look for a school. The school place hangs on the address in the population register, and in Tallinn the date of that registration can be decisive. Whoever waits months with the residence notice moves back in the queue. How the notice works is in staying in Estonia.

What if my child does not speak Estonian?

The system is set up for that. A school can draw up an individual curriculum for a child who has just moved, and receives state funding if it offers two of these three: an individual curriculum, lessons in Estonian as a second language, and extra Estonian lessons. As soon as possible after the start, the school holds a development review with the child, the parents and the teacher, and after that every year. Some schools offer an elective in which children learn their own mother tongue and culture.

In childcare, children with another home language learn Estonian as a second language from the age of three, with state support.

Are there English-language schools?

Harno writes that most schools teach in Estonian and that some are in the process of switching to Estonian as the language of instruction. Teaching in another language continues, for example at schools with the IB programme. There are also private schools, where tuition fees may apply. Weigh the choice honestly: an English-language school makes the first months lighter, but basic education ends with an Estonian exam.

What childcare and school cost in your municipality you ask the municipality; where school falls in the journey is in the step-by-step plan.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 5 of 5 of the journey, step 5.3: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Estonia or go straight to step 5.3 in the open plan.