Estonia to launch four-stage teacher career model, corresponding pay grades
After almost nine months of discussions and meetings, Estonia's new education agreement has been finalized. In the future, teachers will have a four-stage career model, with a designated minimum salary coefficient for each stage.
Beginning January 1, 2026, the country's career and salary model will be split into four tiers, or stages. The minimum salary coefficient for a qualified new or junior teacher will be 1.0, which in current terms would correspond to a monthly gross salary of €1,820. The minimum salary coefficients for senior and master teachers, meanwhile, will be 1.1 and 1.3, respectively.
Speaking to ERR, Minister of Education and Research Kristina Kallas (Eesti 200) said that the ministry will take on the responsibility of finding the funds for the new career model, in order to be able to pay higher salaries to teachers at higher career stages.
An estimated €10 million in additional funding will be needed to implement the career model in 2026. With cumulative growth, additional costs are expected to reach €17 million in 2027 and €25 million in 2028.
According to Estonian Education Personnel Union (EHL) chair Reemo Voltri, this career model resulting from compromises is reasonably satisfactory.
"Since we've had no career model whatsoever for 12 years, now that first step has been taken," explained Voltri. "And it still provides teachers with assurances that if they work on their own development, it will be possible to positively impact their pay too."
Even so, teachers had been hoping that the education agreement would more clearly define limits regarding workloads and their calculations. According to the current wording, teachers' full-time work will remain 35 hours a week, including a weekly recommended 21 teaching hours.
Voltri confirmed that the union had indeed wanted a maximum of 21 teaching hours a week to be explicitly listed in the agreement.
"But here's the thing – we have quite a lot of local governments, and some local governments were categorically opposed to putting such a rigid [limit] in place, and right off the bat," he explained.
According to Kallas, the aim is nonetheless that teachers shouldn't be overworked.
"For example, in terms of class sizes, we also agreed that if there are still consistently more than 26 students in a class, then the school's manager is obligated to either provide the teacher with a teaching assistant or then reduce the teacher's lesson load," the education minister noted.
Currently, the capital of Tallinn has around 380 class sections more than 26 students in size.
According to the agreement, alleviating such an overload means that by 2028, Tallinn will need up to 400 new education workers and nearly €15 million in additional funding, said Tallinn Deputy Mayor Aleksei Jašin (Eesti 200).
"This is provided that we don't raise salaries, but instead just reduce workloads," he explained. "If this is explicitly made a priority, then it's doable – just some other things may not get done then."
Like Kallas, who is chair of Eesti 200, Jašin similarly praised the final version of the education agreement as very good, noting that it addresses important challenges in the field of education.
The deputy mayor added that he would propose that Tallinn city government approve the agreement.
Local governments association has questions
Meanwhile, the Association of Estonian Cities and Municipalities (ELVL), which withdrew from education agreement negotiations in May, found the agreement's purpose and process to be unclear.
Association deputy director Jan Trei questioned why such agreements should be concluded in administrative practice at all.
"Especially in a situation where legislation already regulates all the issues covered in the education agreement," Trei highlighted. "There has been very little substantive analysis, and we haven't seen any impact assessment from the ministry either regarding what this agreement really means."
Expected to be signed by the end of November, the education agreement will be in effect for three years – from 2026 through 2028.
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Editor: Aili Vahtla