Kallas says schools carry too much responsibility for children

Estonian Education and Research Minister Kristina Kallas says schools and teachers are carrying an unrealistic share of responsibility for children, while parents should take a clearer role. Speaking to Raadio 2’s morning programme, Kallas said ERR reports that all adults share responsibility for supporting children’s education, including parents, teachers, local governments, ministry officials and support-service specialists.

“Not only in Estonia, but more broadly in Western society, the balance between parental responsibility and teacher responsibility is out of place,” Kallas said.

She said teachers were now expected to ensure that children get enough sleep to concentrate in class, eat properly, live healthily, exercise enough, avoid social media addiction and not play too many computer games. They are also expected to check whether students have their notebooks and physical education clothes with them.

Kallas compared the situation with her own school years, when parents were called to the school and held responsible for such issues. Today, she said, schools and teachers are expected to handle everything.

“The teacher is seemingly both a parent and a teacher in one job. That boundary is also out of place for me, and parents’ expectations of teachers are not realistic,” Kallas said.

She said the boundary needed to be shifted. A teacher’s job is to teach a subject, skills and competencies, she said, but teachers should not be responsible for raising a child around the clock.

About 1,600 students in Estonia still do not know which school they will attend in the autumn. Kallas said about half already had a school place but had not yet been entered into the system.

She said around 800 children might be in a situation where no adult had taken an interest in them or tried to help them. Kallas said responsibility was now being passed around as authorities looked for someone to blame, including the City of Tallinn, the Ministry of Education and Research or the minister herself.

“Looking for someone to blame will not solve the situation. As a society, we must acknowledge that we have already let these children down for a long time,” Kallas said.

Kallas said local governments must identify and find children who do not know where they will study in the autumn. She said she had personally called 10 local governments and asked whether they had looked for the children. Most had done so, she said, and knew where the children were.

She said several issues were affecting the allocation of school places. Some Ukrainian children are listed in the system, but their families say they are in Ukraine and may not return. Other children have not been reached at all, while some who answer the phone do not know that they are expected to attend school in the autumn.