Estonia’s Ministry of Education has found that the Narva Orthodox Gymnasium of the Moscow Patriarchate uses a scheme that allows it to receive additional substantial funds from the state budget.
This was reported in an investigation by the newspaper Postimees.
According to preliminary data from the Ministry of Education, the scheme worked as follows. In addition to full-time students, the gymnasium admitted more than 400 students to study individual subjects. It should be understood that state funding depends precisely on the number of students, as schools receive per capita allocations.
At present, funding for students who study only individual subjects at the Orthodox gymnasium, rather than following the full curriculum, accounts for more than half of its total budget financing.
According to officials, this indicates the misuse of public funds.
The school disagrees with this assessment. In its response to the ministry’s notice, it stated that it operates transparently, all data were entered into the state register of educational institutions, and no complaints had been raised previously.
How valid this argument is will be determined in the near future by the prosecutor’s office, which has received the inspection materials and will assess whether there are grounds to initiate a criminal case.
The investigation emphasizes that the Orthodox Gymnasium is managed by the non-profit organization “Voskresenie” (MTÜ Õigeusu hariduse ühing Ulestõusmine).
The dean of Narva, Archpriest of the Estonian Orthodox Christian Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, Vitalii Gavrilov, serves as its head.
Open data show that the main source of income for this church structure has been the Ministry of Education. If in 2021 it received 281 thousand euros from the ministry, then in 2025 it received 731 thousand euros, and in 2026 it received 898 thousand euros. The amount of per capita funding from the state has tripled over five years.
At the same time, Vitalii Gavrilov is the sole board member of two other church non-profits, “Rozhdestvo” and “Preobrazhenie,” heads his parish of the Church of the Narva Icon of the Mother of God, and also runs a nursing home attached to the church.
Postimees had previously reported on this nursing home. He organized the facility and until recently received up to one million euros per year for ill and bedridden elderly residents. State inspections confirmed that elderly residents live in overcrowded rooms and in unsuitable premises, under a staircase, in a stairwell niche, and in a corridor.
However, funds were found for the purchase of real estate. In March of last year, the charitable foundation Narva Orthodox Nursing Home (SA Narva Õigeusu Seek) purchased the well-known King Hotel on Lavretsova Street.
