Vocational schools say extra €14 million not enough for meaningful reform
Vocational schools will receive nearly €14 million in additional government funding next year to support vocational education reform, though the sector says a new long-term funding model is also needed.
The Ministry of Education and Research aims to have at least 40 percent of basic school graduates choose applied secondary education by 2035. As part of efforts to reach that target, new four-year curricula aimed specifically at basic school graduates were introduced in vocational education this academic year. The changes have also required vocational schools to review their operating models.
Against this backdrop, the ministry has decided to allocate nearly €14 million in additional funding to vocational schools next year to support the implementation of vocational education reform, said Ülle Matsin, head of the ministry's general and vocational secondary education department.
"When the academic year began, vocational schools' budgets for the current academic year were already planned with the implementation of the reform in mind. Now, for some vocational schools that, for example, had more adult learners, their funding needs are changing. For instance, now that we have more basic school graduates at the vocational secondary education level, funding needs to be available for teaching materials and other needs as well," Matsin said.
Kuno Rooba, chairman of the board of the Estonian Association for the Advancement of Vocational Education, said the additional funding was welcome news and showed that concerns about funding for vocational education had been heard. In the longer term, however, the entire vocational education funding model needs to be reviewed, as its current form does not provide the resources needed to achieve the reform's objectives.
"The vocational education that was provided before and what is now being provided under the name of applied secondary education are very different in substance. Because there are more activities involved, more funding is also needed — for teachers, support staff and the material resources needed to carry out those activities," Rooba said.
New negotiations between the parties over the various components of the funding model will begin this Friday. The ministry also believes that the amount of funding directed toward vocational education must reflect the new situation and that the principles for funding vocational and general secondary education could be more closely aligned.
"This is something we are currently discussing with vocational school leaders, identifying where we need to change funding principles and whether we also need to change, for example, how responsibility is divided among vocational schools when it comes to leading cooperation on teacher development or professional development," Matsin said.
Looking ahead, updating the funding model could also increase the amount of money that needs to be directed toward vocational education, Matsin added.
"Our goal is for more basic school graduates to enter vocational schools than before. Since our funding is based on the cost of providing education to each student, it is clear that this alone will begin to shift a greater share of funding toward vocational education."
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Editor: Marcus Turovski, Mirjam Mäekivi
