Martin Eessalu to Head Estonia's Language Board

Estonia's minister of education and research, acting on a proposal from the senior public officials selection committee at the State Chancellery, will appoint Martin Eessalu as director general of the Language Board. The board is a state agency operating under the Ministry of Education and Research. Eessalu will start on 1 January next year.

What the board does

The Language Board's main tasks are carrying out language policy and exercising state supervision over compliance with the Language Act and other regulations governing language use. The director general serves a five-year term.

Priorities

Eessalu said the coming years will require strengthening the board's capacity to carry out its tasks. Alongside supervision, more attention must go to prevention and support. In his words, the aim of the state is not to fine people but to promote the use of Estonian and reinforce its vitality.

He also named other priorities: making use of language technology and artificial intelligence, working more actively on the prestige of the Estonian language and on communication, and taking a fresh look at the institutional form best suited to achieving the goals. The team is small while the tasks are large, he said, and there is potential for closer cooperation with other institutions, above all the Institute of the Estonian Language.

Background

Since 2023, Eessalu has been head of scientific and research development at the Institute of the Estonian Language. Before that he spent nine years in various posts at the Ministry of Education and Research, the last of them head of the research infrastructure area. In 2020–2021 he served as acting director of the Estonian Literary Museum. He holds a master's degree in humanities, specialising in Estonian and Finno-Ugric languages, from the University of Tartu.

Eessalu will succeed Ilmar Tomusk, who led the board and its predecessor, the Language Inspectorate, for more than 30 years. Tomusk did not seek another term.