Schools struggle to find support specialists despite rising demand

Schools in Estonia are struggling to recruit support specialists even as special education grows in popularity among university applicants, ERR reported.

Tallinn University admits 55 students to its bachelor’s programme in special education and 42 to its master’s programme, said Tiiu Tammemäe, an associate professor of inclusive education and special education at the university. Applications reached 8.8 candidates per place in full-time study and more than 15 per place in the bachelor’s session-based programme.

The university trains as many special education teachers as funding from the Ministry of Education and Research allows, Tammemäe said. She added that many students are recruited during internships and begin working while still studying.

At Laagna kindergarten-primary school in Tallinn, which teaches children with special educational needs, the required staff includes two speech therapists, two special education teachers, a social educator and a school psychologist, director Andres Anton said. The school is currently seeking a special education teacher, a speech therapist and a school psychologist, and has been searching for support specialists for at least a year.

Anton said schools are competing over salaries because candidates often apply to several institutions and may withdraw at the last minute. He added that there is less interest in speech therapy than might be expected because the University of Tartu trains relatively few speech therapists.

A master’s degree is required to qualify as a special education teacher and to obtain the higher-level professional qualification for a social educator, speech therapist or school psychologist. Bachelor’s graduates can work, for example, as kindergarten teachers or teaching assistants, Tammemäe said.

Because of the shortage, schools have hired people under other job titles who do not meet the qualification requirements for support specialists, said Jürgen Rakaselg, head of the inclusive education department at the Ministry of Education and Research. Depending on the profession, they account for 7 to 12 percent of those working in these roles.

Rakaselg said about 2,200 support specialists are currently working. The situation is best for social educators and special education teachers, while psychologists and speech therapists are in shorter supply. The latter two professions are represented in slightly more than half of schools, he said.