The figure for municipal-run schools, which make up the majority of the total number of schools nationwide, that figure drops to 77 percent.

Data from the Estonian education information system reveals 1,867 teachers were on the payroll of state schools in Estonia for the academic year just finished.
379 of this total, i.e. 20 percent, currently do not meet qualification requirements, however.

With municipal schools, 77 percent of teachers in municipal schools meet qualification requirements, while those in more rural or outlying areas often have higher proportions of fully qualified teachers on payroll.
The highest proportion of teachers meeting qualification requirements according to the statistics can be found in the Setomaa rural municipality in southeastern Estonia, where the total is 98 percent.

Municipal schools on Saaremaa at 92 percent and on Ruhnu at 91 percent also employ mostly fully qualified teachers.

However, an outlier here is Vormsi, another island, where only 54 percent of teachers at municipal schools hold qualification certificates.

In Lüganuse, Ida-Viru County, the figure is 53 percent, while in Maardu, just outside Tallinn, the figure is slightly higher at 54 percent.

On average, 76 percent of teachers in private schools meet qualification requirements, according to Ministry of Education statistics.

In the private sector, only three schools: MTÜ Edu Valem, MTÜ International Educational Association of Estonia, and the Tallinna Soome kool school (Tallinn Finnish School) have fully qualified staff in every case.

The proportion of teachers not fully qualified is largest at the Emili school, where they make up 53 percent of the total, and the Eastern Orthodox "Ülestõusmine" ("Resurrection") school (52 percent of the total), followed by the Gaia school (50 percent) and the Metsküla school (50 percent). All of these schools are in Tallinn.

Minister: Coercive fine on schools would be an exceptional measure

The education ministry's supervisory body has the right to impose coercive fines on schools which employ too low a proportion of qualified teachers, so long as alternative measures have failed to ensure compliance over time.

However it has tended to be more carrot than stick so far.

Minister of Education and Research Kristina Kallas (Eesti 200) said: "For us, imposing a coercive fine has so far been an exceptional case. The fine is not a punishment, but a coercive tool used to direct the school to comply with the order when other measures have failed."

"Supervision is based on the legal requirement that all education and upbringing staff must meet the established qualification standards, and any situation where part of a school's staff do not meet these requirements is considered a temporary exception, which both the school and its manager must work to resolve," the minister continued.

There is no set proportion of teachers who should be fully qualified – the assessment of whether the number of qualified teachers at a given school is sufficient is a matter of judgment, the minister said, based on the principle that teaching should "generally" be conducted by teachers who meet the qualification requirements.

This would include ensuring insufficiently qualified teachers were not concentrated in certain subject areas.

"No subject area in a school should be left without a qualified teacher, and from the perspective of any student, the majority of their instruction should not be conducted by teachers who do not meet the requirements," Kallas added.

Kallas: Teachers must continuously develop themselves

The minister also noted that the presence of teachers who meet qualification requirements does not depend solely on state supervision.

Kallas said: "It is vital that the school's owner and principal understand their role and responsibility in improving teacher competencies and qualifications. The teacher themselves must also continuously develop to remain in the profession, and if the requirements are not yet met, they must find ways to fulfill them in cooperation with the school principal."

At the same time, the state has allocated tens of millions of euros towards helping teacher qualification requirements get met.

For the years 2023–2029, the total state budget for continuing education comes to €26,482,500. The ministry has allocated €7,142,857 towards promoting evidence-based and student-centered quality management. Additionally, the state supports enhancing education sector staff competencies for working in multilingual and multicultural environments, with a budget of €6,531,885.

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