Education and Science, Employment, Estonia, Labour-market, Wages

"We will raise the minimum wage [of teachers] to at least 1,250 euros, which by 2019 will bring along a rise in the average wage to at least 1,500 euros," the ministry said.

"At the same time, the large share of part-time teachers in the general education school is still a problem, which should be alleviated by the continued organization of the school network," the press office of the ministry said. According to the information published by the Ministry of Education and Research, there are 533 general education schools in Estonia ahead of the upcoming academic year.

At the same time, the state is promising to also deal with the salaries of kindergarten teachers. "Our objective is to equalize the salaries of kindergarten teachers with those of school teachers at the same level of education," the ministry said.

As the internationally very good results of the Estonian education system rest namely on our teachers, the ministry's is emphasizing the need to deal with ensuring a new generation of teachers. For that, the Ministry of Education and Research has called together a working group that will review measures directed toward teacher training, assess the efficiency of the measures and, if needed, develop new solutions for alleviating the shortage of teachers. The working group will include representatives of various interest groups as well as experts.