Implementing the model in full next year would require an additional €187 million.

During a post-negotiation press conference, Education Minister Kristina Kallas (Eesti 200), Estonian Education Personnel Union (EHL)  chair Reemo Voltri and Deputy Mayor of Harku Rural Municipality Robert Lippin provided an overview of the negotiations at a press conference on Tuesday.

At the negotiations held in Tartu, home of the education ministry, consensus was reached on pressing on with a four-tier career model for teachers.

However, the rules on awarding senior teacher qualifications remain unresolved.

Minister Kallas outlined that the career model comprises four levels: Junior teacher, teacher, senior teacher, and master teacher.

The minimum gross monthly wage for the first tier ie. a junior teacher would be €1,820.

Pay scales would rise based on a coefficient, or multiplier, of 1.2 for a teacher, 1.4 for a senior teacher and 1.6 for a teacher with a masters degree.

The model leaves no scope for unqualified teachers.

The junior teacher position would apply as its name suggests to starting teachers who already have obtained professional qualifications but who lack extensive work experience.

Typically, they would remain at this level for about a year, before moving to the next, ie. teacher level, Kallas explained.

One point of contention, according to Minister Kallas, is when a teacher is promoted to senior teacher.

There are differing opinions on whether this senior teacher designation should be awarded by the school itself, or by a professional certification body.

Kallas said: "There's a debate going on over whether a teacher should go approach a certification body to obtain the senior teacher certification, then return to the school, present this certificate to the school principal and claim a higher wage – it was this aspect which sparked the disagreement."

"Most school administrators, including the Ministry of Education and Research as itself a school administrator, felt that the responsibility of awarding the senior teacher designation should lie with the school administrator [rather than the professional body]," Kallas went on.

Reemo Voltri from the EHL said that some school administrators believe that reaching a higher level should not automatically mean a higher wage. Instead, a teacher would qualify only if the principal tasks then with activities which require higher competencies.

He noted that, according to school principals, only about 10 percent of teachers can be assigned those tasks deemed suitable for a senior teacher, however.

Minister Kallas added that negotiators did not reach any agreement on whether the senior teacher level should be tied to any one specific school. That is, if a teacher achieves the senior teacher level at one school and then transfers to another, it is unclear whether this level would follow them.

Voltri also noted that there were differing opinions on the extent to which the career model should apply to the teaching workforce. "Our position is that the career model should impact about one-third of teachers," Voltri said, adding that there is a strong desire and potential to reach an agreement.

The timing of the implementation of the career model remains unresolved, with discussions ongoing about whether it should take effect from September 1, 2025, or January 1, 2026. According to Voltri, teachers prefer that the career model be implemented as soon as possible.

The Ministry of Education must calculate the new salary levels.

The initial proposal which resulted from the education agreement working party on the teachers' career model suggested that wage categories could rise in 20 percent increments.

Implementing the model in full next year would require an additional €187 million, however.

Minister Kallas said: "We all acknowledged today that salary levels like that are most likely unattainable, meaning the Ministry of Education and Research has been tasked with coming up with new wage level proposals."

If this additional funding is not forthcoming, the implementation of the career model will also be postponed, Kallas added.

Changes to funding model struck off negotiation agenda

The question of what coefficient to use for the different levels within the career model and how much additional funding would be needed ultimately remains unresolved, while proposals for changes to the funding model, from three working parties, were struck off the negotiation agenda altogether.

Last week, the three working parties on the education pact proposed that in the future, all education support funds should be provided to municipalities as one single pool.

From this fund, local governments would pay teacher wages and cover other education-related expenses.

Kallas announced that it is now clear that no further agreements on the funding model will be reached within the framework of the education pact, in any case.

She said: "A change to the funding model of that nature would be so significant that it would also disrupt the implementation of the career model."

"In that case, we would first need to negotiate the changes to the funding model, and then build up the new career model on top of that. We came to realize that we cannot do both things simultaneously. As a result, we agreed to move the potential changes to the funding model back, to the state budget negotiation process," she went on.

Issues related to the school network were not addressed this time and will be dealt with in June, the Ministry of Education announced.

This was the fourth meeting within the framework of the education agreement negotiations. Representatives from nearly 50 municipalities, teachers' and school leaders' organizations, private schools, and the Central Confederation of Trade Unions gathered at the Ministry of Education and Research in Tartu.

Most schools in Estonia are municipality-run, with exceptions including the several state high schools nationwide, some of them still to open, as well as private schools.

The state budget negotiations process starts at the end of summer, with a view to passing the budget into law by year-end.

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