Kristina Kallas: If education pact not finalized by year-end, I will resign
Education Minister Kristina Kallas (Eesti 200) has said that if an agreement on education, which includes defining payscales within the profession, is not struck by the end of this year, she will be stepping down, portal Delfi reports.
Minister Kallas acknowledged the risk that there might be no education agreement in place by year end, potentially leading to a new strike.
She said: "This risk is present since it is a matter of agreement at the government level."
"The education pact is not just the education minister's own agreement, but a government-level one. I need to obtain a mandate from the government in order to be able to sign it. I will however do everything in my powers to ensure that signature is obtained," the minister went on.
Kallas added that if the agreement cannot be signed, she will not have achieved her primary objective and would then step down from her ministerial position.
During the education pact talks held in May, negotiators displayed a range of opinions on the rules for awarding senior teacher qualifications, for instance, and also on how many teachers the new career model should relate to.
Fully implementing the model next year would reportedly require an additional €187 million in funding.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte, Valner Väino
Source: Delfi
