From the academic year 2013/2014 onwards, school leaving certificates are issued based on a decision by the teachers’ council to students:whose school level marks are at least ‘satisfactory’ or, in the case of elective courses, ‘satisfactory’ or ‘pass’;who have completed mandatory courses and received at least ‘satisfactory’ for state examinations in Estonian or Estonian as a second language, mathematics and a foreign language (English, French, Russian or German);who have received at least ‘satisfactory’ for the upper secondary school leaving examination;who have completed a student research project or practical assignment during the course of upper secondary school studies (not applicable to part-time students);students with special educational needs whose mandatory minimum academic results have been lowered or replaced by the school curriculum or an individual curriculum, established on the recommendation by the counselling commission, will qualify for leaving school upon achieving the results required by the school curriculum or the individual curriculum.