Estonia's two largest cities are joining an overwhelming majority of the country's smaller local governments in passing up the education agreement.

According to Tartu Deputy Mayor for Education Lemmit Kaplinski (SDE), it would be irresponsible to take on obligations without additional funding.

"One crucial aspect has been left out of the agreement, which is the reassessment of the current education funding model," Kaplinski explained.

"As one of Estonia's biggest school managers, the City of Tartu confirms that the existing funding model does not allow us to meet all the goals we'd like to take on," he added.

Tallinn has also decided not to sign the agreement, although it does plan to move forward toward similar goals next year, without the framework of the education agreement, using its own resources.

Mayor Jevgeni Ossinovski (SDE) noted that what remained of the agreement following various amendments won't bring about significant change.

"For various reasons, including the fact that the state lacks sufficient funds to address these issues at the moment, it ended up being a good-faith agreement, which, let's be honest, won't change anything one way or another in real life," he explained.

"And of course in Tallinn we discussed this issue with our partners at the political level as well, and did not reach a consensus on joining the agreement," the mayor continued. "I won't deny the air of state politics that could be felt when discussing this topic within Tallinn city government."

The decision not to join the education agreement divided opinions within the capital city's government. Deputy Mayor Aleksei Jašin (Eesti 200) criticized the coalition partner Isamaa, which had advised against signing the agreement.

"There is no objective reason whatsoever for Tallinn not to join – unfortunately, politics came into play now, as usual," Jašin said.

"We summed it up like this: our good colleagues from Isamaa, who are in the opposition at the state level – and this becomes apparent at every turn – wanted to oppose the governing parties," he explained. "Since my colleagues are in the government, they opposed my field and the [education] minister to score political points, so to speak."

Estonian Education Personnel Union (EHL) chair Reemo Voltri likewise criticized the local governments that opted not to join the education agreement, claiming that the lack of financial guarantees is being used as an excuse for political manipulation.

According to him, the most crucial factor involved is the teachers' career model, which should already have sufficient funding.

"One must always approach agreements in good faith, especially if the minister has signed off on funding being changed by that time," Voltri said.

"In fact, all calculations indicate that there will even be a surplus of funding in this area," he highlighted. "What other guarantees do you need? I don't know what kind of guarantee can even be provided under current Estonian law – there really isn't much."

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