The government agreed to pay teachers a minimum salary of €1,820 this year and they will certainly receive this salary, said Mari Annus, head of communications at the Ministry of Education and Research.

But the money can only be allocated after legislation has been amended, she explained. The bill passed its first reading on April 3 and will be discussed by the Culture Committee on Thursday.

"Then we can move on to the second reading. Hopefully, the Riigkogu will process the amendments as quickly as possible so that the extra money reaches the municipalities," Annus said.

Jan Trei, deputy director of the Association of Estonian Cities and Rural Municipalities (Eesti Linnade ja Valdade Liit), said it could take another two months to pass the law.

"Some municipalities have paid teachers extra from their own resources, but others have not. Municipalities are reluctant to take on state responsibilities," he said.

Tallinn, Estonia's largest municipality, has not yet received any money. "The bonus has not yet been paid out as of today, as the Riigikogu is still processing the regulation and there is no legal basis for the payment," said Pirgit Pedaja, chief communication specialist of the Tallinn Board of Education.

Kaarel Rundu, head of the Tallinn Board of Education, said kindergarten and hobby school teachers' salaries are also affected in the capital as it was decided to raise them along with general education teachers.

"This means that the increase in the minimum teacher salary to €1,820 will mean an extra €2.48 million for Tallinn's teachers," he said.

Rundu said wages will be paid retrospectively as soon as the legislation is passed.

"This regrettable situation, where the regulation has not been adopted for several months, has already been repeatedly pointed out by the Association of Estonian Cities and Rural Municipalities," the official added.

Jašin: Selective salary increase from the city

Tallinn's new coalition also plans an additional salary increase for local teachers.

"Basically, it has been agreed that this coalition and the city government will raise teachers' salaries. I say yes, in percentage terms it will definitely go up," ​​said Deputy Mayor of Tallinn Aleksei Jašin (Eesti 200) on "Terevisioon" on Tuesday morning.

"But the question is, how do we share this amount? If we raise the minimum wage for everyone, that amount will be ridiculous. I think between €40 and €50 for each educator in Tallinn. We are talking about assistant teachers, kindergarten teachers and others. This is perhaps not the most sensible step. At the moment, the two most pressing problems are the transition to Estonian-language education and also supporting Estonian schools, where more and more children from other languages are coming. It is likely that resources will go there for those teachers who work with foreign language children," he said.

"If you ask why we are raising it for certain teachers, we have a huge challenge on which the security of the Estonian state depends. It depends on whether we go forward in a united way and in a united language and information space. This means that for a while we will have to treat teachers in these schools separately," Jašin said.

Jašin also said that another problem in Tallinn is the lack of science teachers and resources may be redirected to deal with this.

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