TALLINN — Education funding cuts by the Tallinn municipal government and Estonian national government could result in the teacher layoffs and closure of secondary schools to overcome cash shortfalls.

As the City of Tallinn is short of money due to declining tax revenue, it decided to reduce funding for local high schools Thursday while negotiating its 2010 budget. The national government faces a parallel situation, and is considering closing schools with declining attendance to save on building maintenance costs.

If the Tallinn cuts go through, schools will likely have to let go of faculty such as psychologists, speech therapists and activity group instructors. For the 2009 fiscal year schools received 850 krooni (€54) per student from the municipality, but as it stands now next year they’ll only get 500 krooni (€31) per student. That’s only enough to cover the costs for utility taxes and leaves the support programs empty-handed.

Rita Rumm, the principal of Pirita Gymnasium of Economics, is concerned that the municipal government has not taken in consideration how important support systems are.

“It is possible to establish a fee on activity groups but speech therapists and psychologists should be for free. Children need someone to turn to if there’s something wrong in their family or at school,” Rumm told Baltic Reports.

One option is to reduce salaries and pay only for half-time, but Rumm argues it’s not fair to faculty.

Tanel Keres, the head of the Tallinn Education Board’s budget department tells that all the possible solutions were yet to be discussed at Thursday’s meeting.

“Nothing certain can be told as Tallinn 2010 budget has not yet been approved, there will be two more readings, when all the possible solutions will be discussed,” Keres told Baltic Reports.

On Friday Rumm told daily Eesti Päevaleht that instead of staff cuts, perhaps free lunch should be restricted to students from lower-income families to save money.

“The support services are worked out truly well and our children receive the help that they needed. They are specialists and we do not want to give them up,” Rumm told Baltic Reports.

Rural schools not spared

Meanwhile gymnasiums in rural parts of Estonia serving less and less students do to demographic changes could face closure as the national government is looking to streamline education expenses to keep its budget within the Maastricht criteria for eurozone entry.

Tõnis Lukas, minister of education and culture, supports shutting down more schools because building costs are swallowing too much money. Helmer Jõgi, a parliament member of the Reform Party says that small rural schools, about one-fourth of Estonia’s total, simply do not have enough students to justify the expenditure. He asserts that less than 25 students per class is not effective and told that one class year must have at least 90 students.

Peeter Tulviste, a Union of Pro Patria and Res Publica Party member of parliament asserts that the school system must change with society.

“Secondary school is no longer a staircase to high school but a preparation as life as some people decide to go to work instead of gymnasium,” Tulviste told Baltic Reports.

Tulviste says that the amount of operating gymnasiums must depend on the number of children choosing to attend gymnasium, as an increasing number are instead entering the workforce instead of continuing their education.

However, support is confined to the ruling minority coalition parties, which means the proposal will face a difficult time passing the Riigikogu.

Marek Strandberg, a Green Party member of the parliament, said Estonia obviously needs education reform but more focused on energy costs.

“Separating the secondary school and gymnasium may not be such a bad idea but not in today’s circumstances when the cost of separation is not known,” Strandberg told Baltic Reports.

Strandberg argues that renovating the existing buildings could yield more savings from lower utility bills and avoid the increased transportation costs that busing the students to further away locations would bring.

“It’s very senseless to close down educational institutions without knowing how much we would be able to save on each square meter on heat costs, as each square meter would save us nearly 200 krooni (€12) per year,” Standberg said.

Strandberg is also concerned that a drop in the quality of education could occur under the Reform/IRL plan. Some students would no longer be able to attend activity groups because most of the time belongs to traveling between school and home.

“We have asked the ministry of education how much it will cost to apply such act and the calculations should have been present already in May but today those numbers don’t exist, so it’s not possible to say how much the reform will cost financially and what it means culturally,” Strandberg said.