Within the framework of the Estonia-Latvia-Russia cross border cooperation programme, The Integration and Migration Foundation Our People (MISA) has started a project of refresher courses for Estonia's Russian-speaking speech therapists.

MISA, Narva College of the University of Tartu and the Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia have joined forces to give refresher courses to 55 people who will take part in a training and traineeship programme in Estonia and in Russia.

It is estimated that 15% of Estonia's nursery and primary school pupils need the services of Russian-speaking speech therapists.

“Unfortunately there are no possibilities for Russian-speaking speech therapists to study Russian language based speech therapy in Estonia despite there being a very urgent need for it as the differences in the two languages affect the teaching methods. When native Russian-speaking children need the help of a speech therapist but are unable to access such services, they suffer in many ways because if a person can't speak their native language, it's highly unlikely that they'll be able to learn a second language,” said Sandra Nuudi, the coordinator of MISA Multicultural Education Unit.

“The project has 3 target groups. The first group consists of higher education speech therapists who work with native Russian-speaking children, students writing their master's thesis in speech therapy and Estonian-speaking speech therapists. The second group consists of teachers with special needs education skills. The third group are teachers who do not have a higher qualification in special needs education but who would like to work with native Russian- speaking children,” Sandra Nuudi explained.

According to Ms.Nuudi, teachers already working in the field of special needs education can start working right after finishing the programme and students can start working after they have graduated and finished the programme.

The project's entire budget is around 200,000 euros and its total duration is 2 years. At the end of the project recommendations for creating a new study programme for special needs education will be given.

The project is 90% financed by the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI) within the Estonia-Latvia-Russia cross border cooperation programme programme 2007-2013 with the remaining 10% coming from the state through the Ministry of Education and Science.


Additional info:
Sandra Nuudi
Integration and Migration Foundation Our People
Coordinator of Multicultural Education Unit
phone 659 9855
E-mail sandra.nuudi@meis.ee

Meelika Hirmo
Integration and Migration Foundation Our People
Communication Manager
Tel: 659 9031
GSM: 504 1258
E-mai: meelika.hirmo@meis.ee