OECD Review of Policies to Improve the Effectiveness of Resource Use in Schools Country Background Report Estonia This report was prepared by the Ministry of Education and Research of the Republic of Estonia, as an input to the OECD Review of Policies to Improve the Effectiveness of Resource Use in Schools (School Resources Review). The participation of the Republic of Estonia in the project was organised with the support of the European Commission (EC) in the context of the partnership established between the OECD and the EC. The partnership partly covered participation costs of countries which are part of the European Union’s Erasmus+ programme. The document was prepared in response to guidelines the OECD provided to all countries. The opinions expressed are not those of the OECD or its Member countries. Further information about the OECD Review is available at www.oecd.org/edu/school/schoolresourcesreview.htm Ministry of Education and Research, 2015 Table of Content Table of Content ....................................................................................................................................................2 List of acronyms ....................................................................................................................................................7 Executive summary ...............................................................................................................................................9 Introduction .........................................................................................................................................................10 Chapter 1: The national context ..........................................................................................................................12 1.1 The economic and social context ..............................................................................................................12 1.2 Demographic Developments .....................................................................................................................19 1.3 Political context ........................................................................................................................................24 1.4 Public sector management ........................................................................................................................26 Chapter 2: The school system .............................................................................................................................30 2.1 Organisation of the school system ............................................................................................................30 2.2 Education environment .............................................................................................................................38 2.3 Objectives of the education system and student learning objectives ........................................................41 2.4 Distribution of responsibilities within the school system..........................................................................42 2.5 Market mechanism in the school system ...................................................................................................46 2.6 Performance of the school system .............................................................................................................47 2.7 Policy approaches to equity in education ..................................................................................................53 2.8 Main challenges ........................................................................................................................................54 Chapter 3: Governance of resource use in schools ..............................................................................................56 3.1 Level of resources and policy concerns ....................................................................................................56 3.2 Sources of revenue ....................................................................................................................................61 3.3 Planning of resource use ...........................................................................................................................66 3.4 Implementation of policies to improve the effectiveness of resource use .................................................67 3.5 Main challenges ........................................................................................................................................68 Chapter 4: Resource distribution .........................................................................................................................69 4.1 Distribution of resources between levels of the education administration ................................................69 4.2 Distribution of financial resources across resource types .........................................................................69 4.3 Distribution of resources between levels and sectors of the school system ..............................................72 4.4 Distribution of resources across individual schools ..................................................................................74 4.5 Distribution of school facilities and materials ...........................................................................................76 4.6 Distribution of teacher resources ...............................................................................................................84 4.7 Distribution of school leadership resources ..............................................................................................87 4.8 Distribution across specific student groups ...............................................................................................89 2 4.9 Main challenges ........................................................................................................................................95 Chapter 5: Resource utilisation ...........................................................................................................................97 5.1 Matching resources to individual student learning needs .........................................................................97 5.2 Organisation of student learning time .......................................................................................................99 5.3 Allocation of teacher resources to students .............................................................................................102 5.4 Organisation of school leadership ...........................................................................................................110 5.5 Teaching and learning environment within schools ................................................................................111 5.6 Use of school facilities and materials ......................................................................................................113 5.7 Organisation of education governance ....................................................................................................114 5.8 Main challenges ......................................................................................................................................118 Chapter 6: Resource management .....................................................................................................................119 6.1 Capacity building for resource management ..........................................................................................119 6.2 Monitoring resource use ..........................................................................................................................122 6.3 Transparency and reporting .....................................................................................................................129 6.4 Incentives for the effective use of resources ...........................................................................................131 6.5 Main challenges ......................................................................................................................................131 References .........................................................................................................................................................132 Annexes .............................................................................................................................................................135 Annex 1. Most common length of parent leave in 2010 was 2-3 years ........................................................135 Annex 2. Abbreviations of Political Parties ..................................................................................................136 Annex 3. Calculation of state’s support for teachers’ salaries in 2015 .........................................................137 Annex 4. Process of development of state-commissioned places in vocational education ...........................138 Annex 5. Students with special educational needs according to organisation of studies and curriculum .....139 Annex 6. International Standard Classification of Occupations ...................................................................140 Annex 7. Structure of the income from main activities of local governments according to the quarterly reports on implementation of the 2012 budgets ........................................................................................................141