Education Funding for Disabled Children 'Insufficient'
The head of the non-profit organization Nirk, which coordinates education and extracurricular activities for children with severe disabilities and health problems, says that the financial support from the state budget and the city of Tallinn is not enough to provide a proper level of schooling.
"At the moment we got a lot of help from both the state and local governments. But it doesn't cover all our expenses and it is very difficult to ask for money from the parents of children forced to study at home,” the organization's director Ave Paat said to ETV. She noted that since basic education is mandatory, it should be provided to all children free of charge.
Paat said that the state allocates her center money to educate children at home based on eight hours a week, while children attending schools are given 24 hours a week of schooling. Therefore, she said, it was too optimistic to assume that they could undertake the same curriculum.
Additionally, Paat said, while there are three organizations providing such services in Tallinn, she didn't know of any similar programs in other cities in Estonia.