News

Teachers in Estonia prefer to work in schools with a good management culture, and salary is not the only deciding factor. According to the recently published brief report of the Foresight Centre “The Reputation of the Teaching Profession in Estonia and Its Development Prospects”, the quality of management and a healthy working culture in schools have a key role in shaping the reputation of the teaching profession.

The average salaries of teachers have grown faster than the average salaries overall in Estonia; if the current trend continues, these would reach 120% of the national average in 2024. However, higher salaries often include overtime or extra work, which means that Estonian teachers are overburdened, shows the Foresight Centre report “Teachers’ salaries”.

According to the report “Ukrainian Children in the Estonian Education System”, published by the Foresight Centre, the Estonian schools and kindergartens are generally managing well the extra workload that came with the Ukrainian refugee pupils, but the shortage of teachers and support specialists is putting schools in a very unequal position when it comes to Ukrainian children.

Transition to Estonian as the language of instruction and the influx of Ukrainian refugees are set to exacerbate the problem of finding new teachers across Estonia. This is set out as the initial task of the new research into “The Future for the Next Generation of Teachers” of the Foresight Centre. The new research explores the factors that affect new teachers entering the profession, and its goal is to outline the future trends until 2040.