The state gives money to local government, part of which also goes to education. A bit of a relative term here, because out of ten different state subsidies, 75% of the money goes to the municipality’s general expenses for education. In turn, this money is divided into eight grants, most of which go towards teachers’ salaries.
“If we talk about teachers’ salaries, they represent less than half of this money (of the entire national support fund), which is quite small. In other parts of the world, this percentage is significantly higher. And this is a source of tension, that everyone divides for some specific goals, but for teachers there is no money for salaries. But for many others there is much more. So here is a long-term problem that has lasted for more than 10 years,” said Jaak Aaviksoo, education minister from 1995 to 1996 and 2011 to 2014.
Since 2017, the government has been delaying the removal of restrictions on the use of the subsidy, or so-called labels. The National Audit Office said in 2022 there was no strong argument to continue with the restrictions and that councils should have more confidence in financial matters. In order for money to reach teachers better, there are two basic directions, which have their pros and cons.
“One option is to turn the screw and tell the local government, as a school administrator, what it can do with this money. Another option is that we really give all the money in education that the state currently allocates to local governments , free from any label and we trust local governments: we say that your responsibility is to manage a school and that the state limits itself to supervision,” said Liina Kersna, Minister of Education for 2021-2022.
An important part of the money from the state support fund is the differentiation fund for the salary supplement of teachers, which was once reduced from 20% to 17% by the Minister of Education Mailis Reps (minister from 2002 to 2003, from 2005 to 2007 and from 2016 to 2020). In the current state budget it has been brought back to the previous level, but more would be needed.
According to Reps, education funds should not be exempted from labels, otherwise teachers’ salaries would not increase.
“I’m sorry, if you want to be a minister who in your lifetime will see teachers’ salaries fall at an insane rate, then take down the signs. Absolutely not. It’s been talked about many times. It can only be done if we are the kind of country which could be France or Scandinavia (where there are) only collective agreements. But then the collective agreement must be binding and very, very strong”, said Reps.
The state currently has 39 schools, 14 of which are elementary schools. According to Aaviksoo, teachers may be more willing to work under the state due to salary security.
“There is a very, very difficult question of trust here. I think many teachers would still like to be funded by the state. Somehow, I think, there is trust in this state. With all the confrontation we are hearing today. The leaders of the strike and teachers, no matter how much they oppose the state, still believe it is safer in the long term than remaining under the care of the local government. This is a painful conversation ahead of us,” Aaviksoo said.
In general, former education ministers disagree that basic education should be organized by the state alone.
“The transfer of primary schools to the State would represent a capital change not only in educational policy, but also in the fundamental nature of municipalities. Why they are necessary, what do they do if half of their functions are taken away from them. /…/ So it would be a capital change and I have no order in my mind,” said Tõnis Lukas, Minister of Education from 1999 to 2002, from 2007 to 2011 and from 2022 to 2023.
On the other hand, several former ministers agree that secondary education could be fully state-owned, mainly to provide students with a competitive education.
“In light of this crisis, we should also decide at the legislative level that the state is responsible for higher education. We have already agreed on this in our education development plan. A special network of state high schools, but according to data from a few years ago we still have 44 high schools, where fewer than 100 students study, of which around twenty are those with fewer than 50 students, and I think this is definitely a place where we could do our more efficient school network”, explained Kersna.
So far, change has not been made due to lack of political will. As for the reorganization of the school network, Reps and Lukas say that it is not a magic wand that can bring a large enough percentage to the teachers’ salary fund.
“Even current experience does not demonstrate this. In the case of high schools, if the State created a state high school instead of a local high school, it is not clear whether all this money ended up in the salaries of elementary school teachers in the remaining schools in the municipality or not. Actually no”, said Lukas.
“Life has shown that the local government really loses by closing the school. Why does it lose? It loses in payroll, it loses in income tax rates, it loses in country living, it loses in all other aspects: the local shop disappears , the post office no longer makes sense, the State will take over the structures, it will in turn lose these salaries, in the end even the employee of this library will lose his salary because they say that there are no people there, and as you can see, the school no longer exists. So, in reality, by organizing the school network, the money will perhaps arrive in the very long term, but with crazy regional political pain”, explained Rep.
Kersna and Aaviksoo believe in the need to organize the school network.
“Many countries use modular solutions that are really dynamic. Which is set up and if it is not needed, it is moved 150 kilometers away and set up again. Unfortunately, such effective solutions have not even been discussed in Estonia,” Aaviksoo said.
“If the local government organizes its own school network, making it as efficient as possible, for example by forming community centers in smaller areas where there is a school, but also has a library and other public services, which are cheaper for the government local maintenance, the money saved can be used to pay the teacher a higher salary,” Kersna said.
The opinions of the former ministers also differ regarding the 10.8 million euros that would put an end to the teachers’ indefinite strike. On the one hand it is easy to find small money in the name of school peace, on the other hand we must not give up now with the monetary patch, because the problems in the system are getting worse.
Source: “Current Camera. The Week”
2024-01-28 19:30:00
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