Municipalities think the Ministry of Education's plan, announced last week, has been thrown together hastily and are afraid that it will entail hidden additional obligations for them, "Aktuaalne kamaera" reported on Monday.

"The analysis of risks and opportunities is currently lacking in this draft because it was dealt with too urgently. There will certainly be additional obligations. This administrative burden, which relates precisely to the monitoring of young people and their placement in educational establishments, will certainly increase," said Tallinn Deputy Mayor Andrei Kante.

Riho Raave, head of Tartu's Education Board, said the goal in itself is correct, but simply extending the age of compulsory schooling is not enough. "We have to realize that these are not the students who are particularly motivated to learn. They need a lot of work, counseling, support, all of this requires people, resources," he said.

Kante believes the reform deals with consequences, not causes. "If we want to increase the share of young people with at least high school education, more of these prevention and empowerment measures should be offered to make young people value learning in general. Perhaps, we should review the content of the basic school curriculum to provide more support for young people who do not value learning," he said.

Every year in Tartu there are about 50 young people who do not do anything after finishing basic school. When the reform comes into effect, study places will have to be found for them. But they will not be the only people affected.

Raave said another group with be those who drop out.

"I do not exclude that in the case of Tartu, study places will also have to be found for those who do not live in Tartu, but come from other municipalities. There are limited vocational training institutions and schools that can cope with them," Raave said.

Primarily, this means strengthening the support system. Minister of Education Kristina Kallas (Eesti 200) said more career counseling must be offered to basic school students. However, this also means there will be a greater need for school psychologists who are already in short supply in schools.

"If schools can offer very good working conditions that can compete with other working environments, then surely we will have people with this kind of education," said Karmen Maikalu, head of the Association of School Psychologists.

However, Maikalu stressed the new measure will not be a magic wand that fixes everything in one go.

"We need to give these children and young people the help they need. If we see that the reason for their absence from school is their mental health, then we need to help them get their mental health right. If we just tell them to stay on the school rolls, it will do little good," she told AK.

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