Estonia introduces language tests for military service
The Estonian parliament decided last week to add a language component to the Military Service Act, making B1-level language skills a prerequisite for conscription. Wise decision or false incentive?
Language skills are necessary
According to the Defence Resources Agency the change is necessary in order to operate increasingly complex weapons and communications systems, ERR Online sums up:
“People with language skills below B1 level are not equipped to sufficiently understand instructions and teaching content, which in turn will hinder the successful completion of effective military training, explains Daisi Želizko-Kask, the agency's head of communication. According to the defence forces, approximately a fifth of conscripts do not have sufficient knowledge of the national language when they enter military service to participate in training and perform their duties. As a result the defence forces are forced to organise language training for them - at the expense of military training.”
Reward for idleness
Reservist Martti Kallas does not think much of the decision in Õhtuleht:
“Exempting citizens with poor language skills from their obligation only exacerbates a problem for which eight or eleven months of service is actually the ideal solution. The change in the law means that while someone who speaks Estonian well - regardless of their native language – will do their duty, and other slackers can just loaf about. That is not okay. It just makes it easy for those with insufficient Estonian language skills to get out of a year of national defence service simply by not attending language courses.”