Tallinn University (TLÜ) admits 55 students to its bachelor's program and 42 to its master's program in special education each year, and Tiiu Tammemäe, associate professor of inclusive and special education, said demand is steadily rising.

She said applications for full-time studies outnumbered available enrollment nearly nine times over, while session-based bachelor's studies drew more than 15 applications per spot, making special education one of the most competitive majors in the country.

The university trains as many special education specialists as funding from the Ministry of Education and Research allows.

"At the moment, we aren't looking to increase the size of these study groups either, although there may be public pressure to train more [specialists]," Tammemäe acknowledged.

Still hiring

Yet schools continue to struggle with staffing. Tallinn's Laagna Kindergarten-Basic School, which serves students with special educational needs (SENs), is required to have two speech therapists and two special education teachers, as well as a social pedagogue and school psychologist, said principal Andres Anton.

"There isn't the demand you'd expect among speech therapists, because the University of Tartu (TÜ) simply trains relatively few of them," he said.

His school is currently hiring a special education teacher, speech therapist and school psychologist, and Anton said they have been searching for the support specialists for at least a year already.

"It's not uncommon for someone to apply to several places and then, as always, they go with the highest bidder," he said, adding that candidates will sometimes withdraw at the last minute as a result, sparking competition among schools over pay.

Tammemäe said demand is already reaching university students during their studies, with institutions requesting she share job openings, recruiting during internships and even getting hired before they graduate.

Unqualified staff hired under different roles

A master's degree is required to qualify as a special education teacher or pursue higher-level qualifications as a social pedagogue, speech therapist or school psychologist. Bachelor's graduates, meanwhile, can work as kindergarten teachers or school teaching assistants.

The Education Ministry estimates there are about 2,200 support specialists working in schools. However, 7–12 percent of positions, depending on the specialty, are filled by people who do not meet the formal qualification requirements, said Jürgen Rakaselg, head of the ministry's Inclusive Education Department.

Facing a shortage of specialists, he noted, some schools have formally placed under- or unqualified staff in other roles.

"We know some schools have never had a school psychologist at all, despite the law requiring them to provide that service," Rakaselg admitted.

Schools are best staffed in terms of social pedagogues and special education teachers, the ministry official said. School psychologists and speech therapists, meanwhile, are harder to find; the latter two are currently available at just over half of the country's schools.

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