Government to invest €450 million into education system
According to the budget strategy approved by the Estonian government on Wednesday, the country's education system is to get a boost of more than €450 million over the next four years, much of which will be spent on teacher salaries.
It was decided in the budget strategy that more than €246 million will be spent on raising teachers' salaries over the next four years, a press officer from the Ministry of Education and Research told BNS on Thursday.
A total of €61 million will be contributed to the program to motivate increasing kindergarten teachers' salaries, including €2.5 million to be paid this fall already.
"The goal is to raise the salaries of kindergarten teachers so that it would be on the same level with school teachers' salaries," explained the press officer. "In the majority of local governments, this will result in the average salaries of kindergarten teachers increasing by around 50 percent."
The government also decided to support research and development activites with €22 million, increasing post-graduate students' support with €20 million, increasing school lunch support with €24 million, remote rural high schools situated far from population centers with €2 million, implementing the pilot program for teaching Estonian in high schools with €4 million and continuing to establish state high schools with €4.8 million over the next four years.
Editor: Aili Vahtla
Source: BNS